Coolheadluke does RWBY one-shots
by Coolheadluke
Summary: For those of you who like eclectic collections of one-shots and/or my writing style, then this compilation is probably for you. Check inside for details. Updated roughly once per week, maybe more if I have the time:)
1. Rules

Hello dear readers! For those of you who have read Rebellion: The Fallout of the Second Human-Faunus War, you already know me. For those of you who haven't, I recommend clicking the link and checking it out, as it is a prime example of my writing style. As is stated in this story's description, I will be taking any and all RWBY one-shot requests here. Just drop a review or PM with anything from a story outline to a one-sentence prompt, and I'll be sure to get back to you as soon as it's published. I promise to get everything done in a timely manner (as timely as I can with school about to begin, anyway), and to always respect your opinions.

Some ground rules, however:

1. I do not do lemon/smut. Period.

1-1. I am willing to do fluff/fanservice.

1-2. Any and all ships are welcome and will be treated equally. That being said, ships that I am unfamiliar with will take longer to write for obvious reasons.

2. If you want a particular one-shot rated M, let me know so I can put a warning at the top of the chapter. Otherwise, let's keep it T and under guys.

3. If you wish for your prompt to remain anonymous, PM it to me and let me know. I always respect requests for privacy.

4. I own nothing. The show RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and RoosterTeeth, and all AUs belong to their respective creators.

5. Sit back, relax, and enjoy. Have a great week guys:)


	2. Easter for Velvet and her Knight

**Easter for Velvet and her Knight  
Prompt submitted by: Volcaniclord**

To most of Remnant, Easter was a secular holiday, a time to share chocolates and goodwill with family and friends. It was a time of peace and love and family gatherings gone wrong. At least, that was how Jaune felt about Easter. For him, Easter was simply another excuse for his family of truly legendary hunters to meet up and share tales about their latest exploits. Year after year, he was ashamed of his lack of stories, and was consequently ashamed of his lack of courage and skill. He just wanted to be like the rest of his family, but fate had dealt him a horrible hand and he was stuck trying to play it as best he could.

Jaune sighed, moodily stalking down the halls to get some breakfast. Normally he would have gone with his team, but they were all absent for one reason or another. Pyrrha had taken advantage of the one week break given for the holiday to visit her parents in Mistral, a fate that Jaune had narrowly avoided by claiming that he was busy with extracurricular Grimm hunts. Nora had woken up at the crack of dawn and dragged Ren out of the room, screaming something about chocolate pancakes and a day out in Vale. So, Jaune was quite alone in the halls, grumbling to himself about how the most exciting event in his life began with being pinned to a tree by Pyrrha's spear and ended with Nora crushing a deathstalker's skull. He didn't count defending Cardin from the ursa as extraordinary, not after he had learned from a talkative Nora that Pyrrha had used her semblance to assist him.

As he passed by a side corridor on his way to the cafeteria, Jaune heard a small yelp of pain. Glancing over, Jaune's scowl deepened. Cardin and the rest of Team CRDL were busy bullying a certain rabbit faunus, Jaune vaguely remembered her name to be Velvet. Normally, Jaune would have continued walking, hating himself for his cowardice. However, Cardin had simply come along at precisely the wrong time. Stepping forward with purpose, he grasped Cardin's wrist before the bully could pull on Velvet's ears again.

"Knock it off, Cardin" Jaune growled. "I thought I told you to stay away from my friends?"

"What?" Cardin muttered in surprise, shaking his wrist free of Jaune's grip. "I've never seen you with her before in my life."

"Well, she's my friend now" Jaune countered, not in the mood for a serious argument.

"Tch, whatever" Cardin said, turning away with a disgusted smirk. "C'mon guys, let's leave this loser to look after his pet, eh?"

Velvet looked about ready to cry, and Jaune was severely unamused. He tapped Cardin politely on the shoulder. As the bully turned around, Jaune's other arm was already moving, drilling a solid right hook straight into Cardin's smirking face. Cardin staggered back, the only thing keeping him from falling being the helpful arms of his teammates. He growled, about to draw his mace and attack. However, he saw the dangerous glint in Jaune's eyes, the accompanying white glow of aura. Cardin backed off, grimacing as he lead his team away in the search for something to ice his swelling eye. Jaune sighed, dropping his hands and his aura as he turned around to face Velvet.

"You alright?" he asked, glancing up as he knelt to pick up a package that he noticed had fallen at her feet.

"F-Fine..." Velvet stammered, not really looking Jaune in the eye. She had heard the stories, vastly exaggerated of course, about how Jaune had defended Cardin from a pack of rampaging ursa and put the bully forever in his debt. To have such a hero come to her aid was a little overwhelming to the naturally shy and reserved faunus.

"Good to hear" Jaune replied, smiling as he stood and held out her package.  
Velvet stared. He had a simple but sincere smile, one that reached into the depths of his beautiful blue eyes. His voice rang with that same sincerity, blended with a genuine concern for her wellbeing. She blushed a little, unsure of what to think as she took her package back. She was so engrossed in her own musings that she almost missed Jaune's casual goodbye.

"W-Wait!" she called on impulse, wanting to thank him for what he had done. Jaune was already beyond earshot however, and Velvet's ears drooped briefly in defeat. Then she remembered that they were both heading to breakfast, and she perked up.

"I'll just thank him there!" she decided, striding off towards the cafeteria.

Apparently, Nora had been right about breakfast including chocolate pancakes. Equally apparent was the fact that she had decided to eat all of them herself, as she was quietly laying down on a bench with her hands resting on a comically full stomach. Ren was allowing her to use his lap as a pillow, gently stroking her hair as she slept off her food coma. Jaune sighed again, now that he knew that chocolate pancakes existed, he really wanted to try some. Contenting himself with a plate of ordinary pancakes, he sat down and picked up his knife and fork, digging in with gusto.

"Hello..." Velvet said, standing politely to the side of Jaune. "May I sit next to you?" Jaune glanced up and smiled, nodding and gesturing at the empty seat.

Velvet was thrilled. Not only had Jaune beaten back Cardin and his gang of a team, but she was pretty sure that his willingness to sit with her signified that he was willing to be friends. She didn't have all that many friends here at Beacon, and other than Yatsuhashi from her team, she certainly had no boy friends. She blushed slightly at the phrasing that her mind had chosen, quickly changing the word 'boy' to 'male.' She was slightly worried about keeping Jaune's friendship. Yatsuhashi was very laid back and calm, more than willing to go with the flow and quite forgiving of everyone who was a little rambunctious. Jaune, on the other hand, was a complete unknown. Perhaps all that was needed was a polite icebreaker?

"So..." Velvet began between bites of her fruit. "How are you enjoying this Easter break?"

"Ah, you know..." Jaune replied, a little too slowly. "Just, getting all those chocolates for friends! And all that..." It was glaringly obvious that he was lying, but Velvet didn't want to push him.

"Oh, in that case, why not stop by my parent's store in Vale?" she offered, wanting to give him something to take his mind off of whatever was bothering him.

"Hmm?" Jaune replied. "I didn't know your parents lived in Vale. Then again, I didn't know you until just now either..."

"Yeah, they're chocolatiers" Velvet elaborated. "They sell their custom creations year-round, but the holidays are always the busiest times for them."

"Oh" Jaune said, idly stabbing at his one remaining pancake. "Well, I kinda got done with my shopping already, so... I don't think I should bother them... Thanks anyway though."

Velvet was now slightly frustrated. She was a very compassionate and empathetic person, and it was so obvious that something was eating at Jaune, preventing him from enjoying the holiday. Why couldn't he see that she just wanted to help? It was then that she got an idea. Jaune had rushed in to defend her from Cardin, and felt good about it afterwards, right? So what if she just asked him to accompany her to make her feel safer? That might get his mind off of whatever it was dwelling unhealthily on.

"Well..." Velvet began again. "I was going to visit them anyway, deliver this package in person, but... well... Could you just come with me? It's not fun being alone as a faunus, and people like Cardin seem to be everywhere..."

Jaune glanced over, noticed that Velvet's eyes were glistening with tears. He cursed himself internally. Here he was, too absorbed in his own self-pity to notice when a nice girl just wants to have a friend to talk to on a stroll through Vale. Accompanying her would be far more interesting than moping around, and potentially far more fulfilling. What if, as she said, more racists like Cardin decided to have a crack at her?

"In that case, sure" Jaune replied, finishing up his pancakes. "When do we start?"

After a half hour of pure agony for Jaune on an airship, he found himself following Velvet through downtown Vale. Velvet was busy elaborating on her parents' creations, seemingly able to break out of her usual shy shell when it came to chocolate. Though he understood maybe one word in three when it came to her technical descriptions, Jaune was still having a good time as they strolled through the streets.

"...And so, since everyone in the family knows how to make chocolate, we use Easter as an excuse to get together and show off our own creations!" Velvet concluded, hugging her package to her chest. "I hope they like mine..."

"I'm sure they will" Jaune said, amused.

"I worked on it for hours..." Velvet mumbled. "Do you know how hard it is to properly sculpt chocolate when the only thing you have that remotely resembles an oven is the blast furnace down at the forge?"

"No, but I'd imagine that it would be nearly impossible" Jaune replied, impressed at her dedication.

"It was! And... oh, we're here" Velvet said, stopping in front of a modest storefront. There was a large display window next to the door, showcasing all manner of chocolates and sugary creations. Jaune's mouth watered just by looking at them.

Grinning at his slack-jawed expression, Velvet led him inside. A bell chimed as they stepped through the door, instantly drawing the attention of a strapping rabbit faunus standing behind the counter.

"VELVET!" he called out, his voice a deep brogue as he came out into the shop.

"Papa!" Velvet replied enthusiastically, handing the package off to Jaune as she leapt into her father's arms. He easily caught her and spun her around, his laugh deep and sonorous as she giggled. Jaune smiled a little wistfully at the pair, wishing that his own family could be a little more normal like the Scarlatinas.

"And who" Velvet's dad asked, setting his daughter down and clapping Jaune on the shoulder. "Is this fine young lad 'ere? Made a new friend did you?"

"Papa, this is Jaune. He's my classmate up at Beacon" Velvet explained.

"Hello" Jaune said, glancing up at Velvet's father and feeling somewhat intimidated.

"Well, isn't that grand?" Velvet's father exclaimed. "My wee daughter making new friends. You'd never guess it here, but she's quite shy y'know."

"Papa!" Velvet complained cutely. Jaune and her father shared a laugh.

"C'mon lad" Mr. Scarlatina said, clapping Jaune once more on the shoulder before letting go. "Any friend of Velvet's is a friend of mine. Why don't you come on back, meet the missus and the rest, eh?" Jaune nodded, and went into the back room with Velvet.

It was a workshop, filled with ovens, tools, and of course, chocolate. There were also at least five young rabbit faunus milling around, all watched over by a much older faunus, evidently their mother. She glanced up when she heard the door open, smiling at the two teens as they entered.

"Mama!" Velvet called over the dull roar that the other rabbit faunus were making, rushing over to her. "I brought you my creation!"

"Ohoho! That's my girl!" Mrs. Scarlatina chuckled, hugging her daughter. "And who's this?"

"Jaune Arc" Jaune introduced himself, carefully negotiating the controlled chaos of young rabbit faunus before tucking the package under one arm and shaking hands with Mrs. Scarlatina. "I'm a classmate of Velvet's back at Beacon."

"Oh, how lovely!" Mrs. Scarlatina beamed. "It's so nice to know that Velvet's making friends outside Team CFVY."

"I'm not that shy, mama..." Velvet protested. "I have plenty of girl friends."

"And how many boys, hmm?" Mrs. Scarlatina teased. "Just Yatsuhashi and Jaune, hmm?"

"...shut up..." Velvet mumbled, fiddling with one of her ears while glancing down. The effect was undeniably cute.

"Well, just put the box down here, Jaune" Mrs. Scarlatina said, gesturing at an empty patch of counter. "And you can come along and wash up in here."

"W-Wait, what?" Jaune asked, being pulled through another doorway and into a bathroom.

"It's so rare that Velvet ever has a friend over" Mrs. Scarlatina explained. "So you just have to stay for lunch, okay?" She gave Jaune a winning smile, and he shrugged in defeat. He had already finished his homework for the week, so it wasn't as if he had anything to get back to up at Beacon.

When he got back to the workshop, the whole family had gathered around a central table, 'oohing' and 'ahing' over each of the fantastic creations that they had made. Jaune glanced at his watch and was mildly surprised to learn that it was noon, apparently their stroll through Vale had taken far longer than he had thought. He walked up to the table, eager to see for himself just what had been made. From Mr. Scarlatina, there was an elegant representation of a Nevermore in a roosting pose, so lifelike that Jaune instinctively reached for Crocoa Mors before reminding himself that it was just chocolate. Mrs. Scarlatina had made a chocolate nest, each twig and leaf individually crafted and fitted together. The younger faunus had all made eggs, each engraved with patterns of varying complexity based on their age and skill.

Finally, it was time for Velvet to showcase her creation. She gently set the box down on the central counter and undid the string, letting the box fall apart at the seams. Inside the box lay...broken pieces, shards of sculpted chocolate. Jaune was slightly confused, was Velvet going for a new-age art style with her work? Then he noticed the tears in her eyes, the quivering of her lower lip. His mind flashed back to her being bullied, the package laying on the floor.

_She must've dropped it when they yanked her ears..._ Jaune realized, making a mental note to punch Cardin again when he next saw him, preferably on the same eye.

"I... I..." Velvet stammered, crushed by the destruction of her hard work.

"It's alright, Velvet" Mr. Scarlatina reassured her, gently patting her on the back. "Maybe next year..."

"It's always next year, next year!" Velvet exploded, her face briefly contorting in anger before remembering that they had company. She glanced over at Jaune, mortified at her outburst, before fleeing the room with tears in her eyes. Almost without thinking, Jaune followed her. After a minute of following the sound of her footsteps, Jaune found himself outside a door with a hand painted sign that read "Velvet."

"Velvet?" he tentatively called, gently knocking on the door. He was answered with the muffled sounds of crying.

Seeing as none of her family had followed her, and the door being unlocked, Jaune slowly let himself into Velvet's room. It was painted a light blue, and two windows let in vast amounts of the midday sun. Velvet's bed was off in a corner, a curtained four-poster. Velvet herself was curled up on top of her sheets, hugging a pillow to her chest as she sniffled.

"Hey, mind if I come in?" Jaune said, feeling the extreme awkwardness of being in a girl's room without her permission. He was answered by a noncommittal grunt, so he took that as a positive answer and stepped inside with more confidence.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, sitting down next to her bed.

"..." a vague mumbling came from Velvet's bed, and Jaune strained his ears.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that..."

"I'm not good enough..." she repeated after awhile. "I've never been good enough... My brothers and sisters all picked up the art of sculpting chocolate far faster and better that I did, even though I was the oldest... While I was still struggling to engrave eggs, they were already making their own custom designs..." She sniffled a little, taking a few moments to herself. "I didn't want to get shown up again this Easter, so I practiced all the time by making treats for my team, and they really loved my work. So I promised to get better and... then... I made Beacon..."

"You did what?" Jaune asked for clarification after half a minute's silence.

"I made a model of Beacon out of chocolate" Velvet explained. "I didn't have too much left though, so I had to make it hollow... It must have shattered when I dropped it earlier... I must be cursed to always be a failure..." She sounded incredibly depressed, an emotion that Jaune could sympathize with.

"Chocolate is a big thing in your family, isn't it?" Jaune asked, laying back on the floor and gazing up at the ceiling.

"It is, so why can't I sculpt like them?" Velvet replied mournfully.

"I can't answer that, but I think I can make you feel better" Jaune said. "Just as chocolate is really important to your family, heroism is important to mine. We have huge family gatherings every holiday so we can compete in telling the stories of our bravery and courage. I was always fascinated by these contests, until I had to participate." Jaune chuckled a little. "I could never top what the rest of my family was doing, so I always lost the contest. Made me feel like I was never going to amount to anything. I felt like I had gotten a lucky break when I got into Beacon, I thought that I had gotten a chance to prove myself."

"And you have..." Velvet muttered. "You're a team leader, you killed a horde of ursa to save Cardin, and you coordinated your team to take down a deathstalker. You have everything you need to proclaim yourself a hero."

"Aside from the team leader part, I don't" Jaune admitted. "I did coordinate my team when taking down a deathstalker, but only in the final moments when it was nearly defeated anyway. And it was just one ursa that I killed, not a horde. And I only killed it because Pyrrha used her semblance to move my shield, keeping me from getting clawed as I decapitated it. I'm not a hero, just a wannabe. But that doesn't mean I'm not still trying. So, I don't think you should give up either." There was a slight shifting noise from the bed, and Velvet poked her head off the edge to look at Jaune.

"You mean that?" Velvet asked, her eyes slightly red from crying.

"I do" Jaune replied, grinning up at her. "You made Beacon once, didn't you? What's to stop you from doing it again?" Velvet smiled slightly, wiping at the corners of her eyes. She got off her bed and knelt down, and Jaune sat up.

"Thank you" she said, pulling him into a brief hug.

"Awwww~" Mrs. Scarlatina cooed, and the two teens broke apart with furious blushes.

"MAMA!" Velvet shouted, hurling the nearest pillow at the door.

"THIS ISN'T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, I SWEAR!" Jaune assured her, hurriedly backing off until he collided with a wall.

"You're just so sweet together!" Mrs. Scarlatina beamed, giggling a little. "I'll leave you two alone then~" She closed the door behind her, and Velvet turned to face Jaune, her blush still prominent.

"...You're helping me." she stated flatly, grabbing his hand and hauling him up, before dashing off to the kitchen.

_Well..._ Jaune thought to himself as he learned how to sculpt chocolate. _Perhaps Easter doesn't have to be so bad after all..._

**Author's Note:**  
Alright, first chapter of this story is done! As stated at the beginning, this prompt was submitted by volcaniclord. This story will be 100% driven by fan requests, except if I get bitten by the oneshot bug myself (which usually never happens). So, if you like what you see, drop a prompt or story outline in the reviews section, or PM me if you wish to remain anonymous. I promise, I will always respect you, my readers, so have no fear and submit what you will. As always, have a great week, guys:)


	3. Who's a good kitty?

**Who's a good kitty?  
Submitted by: aceman88**

**A/N: Note on setting, this occurs just after episode 16 in RWBY, Season 1. Enjoy:)**

To say that Blake Belladonna was pissed would be a vast understatement. She knew that Yang was overly fond of practical jokes and pranks. She knew that Ruby was too enthusiastic to see how quickly this...proposition...could go down the drain. She knew that Weiss was a racist that... Well, actually Weiss had been the one person who had voted against the idea, and on moralistic grounds to boot, so Blake was willing to forgive her. But still, Yang's idea of 'penance' for Blake's desertion of the team when she had inadvertently revealed she was a faunus was absolutely outrageous! In a 2-1 vote (Blake had been excluded as she was the one being punished), it had been decided that Blake was to become Team RWBY's pet cat for three days. This was not only racist and degrading, but since the inter-semester break had just started, Blake couldn't even wriggle out of it by claiming that she had to devote attention to classes. She felt like the fates were conspiring against her, and truly dreaded what the next seventy-two hours were going to bring.

**Day 1, Ruby**

_CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!_

Ruby's overly annoying whistle woke the entire team, who responded with the usual assortment of moans, groans, and complaints. Weiss slowly sat up, long accustomed to Ruby's enthusiastic morning routine. Yang, as always, managed to fall spectacularly out of bed, landing solidly on the floor next to Blake.

"No catch today?" Yang groaned, complaining at Blake's refusal to catch her partner as she usually did.

"No" Blake replied, having been awake for the past hour or so quietly reading a novel with earmuffs on.

"Whyyyyyy?" Yang complained, slowly getting up.

"Hmm, let me think..." Weiss said sarcastically. "Maybe it had something to do with the fact that you were the one who 'suggested' that she become our pet for three days?"

"Yep!" Ruby agreed, cheerfully stepping on her sister's back-who groaned in protest as she was rammed back into the ground-as she waltzed over to Blake's bedside. "And she's all mine today!" Blake glanced up, at Ruby's cheerful face, completely unamused. It had been agreed (again without consulting Blake) that each of the three girls was to have one day with Blake to themselves, which worked out to three days of utter humiliation for the usually stoic cat faunus.

"Indeed" Weiss agreed, getting up and striding over to her closet to change, managing to step on Yang's back in the process.

"Am I invisible or something?!" Yang complained as her face met the floor for the third time in just under two minutes. Blake was about to offer a snarky reply when she felt Ruby's quick hands deftly remove the book from her hands, the earmuffs from her head, and her bow from her ears. Glancing up at the redhead, Blake knew what was coming. It was inevitable, after all.

"Nyaa!~" Blake purred, happily nuzzling into Ruby's palm as the younger girl scratched her cat ears.

It had been about an hour since Weiss and Yang had left the room to hunt down some breakfast and make a shopping run for the team in Vale. In that one hour Ruby had decided to cuddle continuously with her temporary pet, resulting in a very relaxed Blake. She hated to admit it, but it felt rather nice to be laying here, relaxing as her team leader massaged her into oblivion. It was too good to last. After a few more minutes of scratching, Ruby carefully shifted Blake's head onto the floor and stood up. Blake's amber eyes followed her, slightly suspicious of what was coming next but too calm to be genuinely concerned. Ruby briefly rummaged around in her canopied bed, coming back down with a cylindrical object in hand.

_What is she..._ Blake began to wonder, before her mind froze. It was back, the cursed red dot was back.

Blake's amber eyes narrowed, sliding from side to side as they tracked her age-old enemy. She slowly uncurled, taking care to not startle the mysterious creature as she readied herself to pounce. Her muscles tensed, her senses sharpened, watching as the dot moved in lazy circles on the floor. Blake dove forward, swinging her hands down as she landed on top of the dot. It disappeared, and Blake grinned. Now to check on whether she had actually caught it... And the damn thing was loose again, flying across the floor to slowly circle around in a new area.

The process repeated itself, except that this time the dot flew away to reappear on Blake's bed. Then across the room, onto Ruby's suspended bed. Then onto the ceiling, where Blake made a heroic leap before suddenly remembering that gravity existed. She fell and landed on all fours, glaring up at the devilish light as it continued in its lazy circular path that taunted her so. Suddenly it dropped from the ceiling to the floor, where it dashed under Weiss' bed. Blake followed it with a growl, determined to catch the cursed creature. Instead of finding it however, Blake found something to calm her agitated nerves.

When she reemerged from under Weiss' bed, she possessed a small ball of black yarn, which she happily batted about. She gamboled about on the floor, making Ruby squee at the sheer cuteness of the scene. Blake's face was alight with kitten-like joy as she played with the yarn, a silly grin replaced her usual smirk. Ruby eventually joined in, and the two tussled good-naturedly as they fought for control of where the yarn went next.

When Weiss and Yang returned, they found Blake happily tangled in yarn, mewling as Ruby slowly helped her remove it. Weiss dropped her bags off at the door and moved to assist Ruby, while Yang barely tried to stifle a laugh. As soon as Ruby and Weiss managed to remove and hide the yarn, Blake slowly returned to her usual self.

"Why am I on the floor?" she asked curiously.

"Yarn?" Ruby explained, more of a question than a statement. Blake rolled up into a sitting position and nodded, seeming to accept the answer as reasonable.

"Anything else for today?" Blake asked, very calmly and very dangerously.

"I made you dinner..." Ruby hurried up as Blake's expression began to darken. "It's tuna!"

"...fine..." Blake mumbled, hating her weakness to the delicacy of all convenience foods, tuna.

Weiss and Yang (mostly Yang) pestered Ruby to tell them about the day, which she did while Blake ate. Once she was finished, they decided to all hit the hay before she could assault them, and thus the first day of Blake's penance was over.

**Day 2, Weiss**

The second day began more or less exactly the same as the first, and after the short melodrama of Yang complaining about not being caught by her partner, she and Ruby left to catch a Pentakill concert. This left Weiss alone with a slightly nervous Blake. Even though Weiss had been the one person (other than Blake) who had objected to this whole idea, she was still Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and daughter to the most powerful racist of all time. So when Weiss sat down against the wall and gestured for Blake to join her, Blake did so with no little measure of trepidation. She sat down next to Weiss, who gently but firmly pulled Blake's head into her lap, where she proceeded to to gently stroke Blake's ears and hair.

"I'm sorry" Weiss began, her voice honest and sincere. "I really am. But Yang will have my head if I don't follow through..."

"Why do you even care?" Blake asked, her voice hovering somewhere between pained and venomous.

"We're a team" Weiss said simply. "We're supposed to be able to trust each other with our lives. As I said before, you can come to us, any of us, with your problems. I know Yang did this mostly as a joke, but we might as well turn this into a team-building exercise..."

"I..." Blake began, but Weiss cut her off with a particularly delightful ear scratch.

"Cats don't talk" Weiss reminded her gently.

Thus began what was perhaps the strangest day of Blake's life. She lay with her head in Weiss' lap, and the heiress whiled away the hours petting Blake. She scratched the faunus' ears, stroked her hair and back, tickled her under the chin. When leaning against the wall became uncomfortable, Weiss helped the purring faunus up and they cuddled on Blake's bed. Blake felt rather warm and fuzzy on the inside, a feeling that she had seldom experienced before. She was cuddling with the heir to the most hated person among the faunus, a person that the White Fang would gladly sacrifice a hundred members to kill. And this person, despite knowing all this, was willing to cuddle back, had actually taken the initiative to make friends with her.

"You showed me a different perspective, you know" Weiss said, almost as if she had been reading Blake's thoughts. "When I take over the company from my father, I'm going to be making plenty of changes..." Blake smiled, not hearing the rest of the heiress' speech as a sunbeam crossed onto her body, and she fell asleep.

"..iss?"

"...so cute!"

"SHUT UP!" Blake was jolted awake by Weiss' sudden outburst, and she instinctively clapped her hands over her sensitive ears.

"You barbarian, look what you've done now!" Weiss continued, cradling Blake's head and stroking her hair.

"Sorry Princess!" Yang wheezed, struggling to talk around her laughing fit. "But you looked so cute just napping there with Blake!" Blake blushed a little, and slowly wiggled her way out of Weiss' grip. Needless to say, Yang didn't let it go for the rest of the night.

**Day 3 Yang**

The third and final day of Blake's penance had arrived, the day that Blake had been dreading. Ruby had been playful, Weiss had been unexpectedly comforting, but Yang? She was going to be downright crazy. This theory was surprisingly not proven the instant that Ruby dragged Weiss off to the training grounds to study. Instead of instantly rushing in to embarrass Blake, Yang stretched and dropped to the floor, slowly walking over to the closet. Blake watched her with narrowed eyes, cautious around her rambunctious teammate. When Yang returned after briefly rummaging around, she was holding a delicate china plate filled with a pile of tuna topped with a sprig of mint.

"Breakfast~" Yang trilled, setting the plate down in front of Blake with a bow. Blake raised an eyebrow, skeptical.

"No tricks, I promise!" Yang said, grabbing a random chunk between her fingers and swallowing it whole. "See?" Blake reluctantly took the plate and ate her way through the pile. Just as she set it down, she felt a little strange. She braced herself as a spell of lightheadedness overcame her, and shook her head to clear it.

_Yang you fiend..._ Blake cursed internally, wanting to scream as a cute "Nyaa~" escaped her instead. Yang had spiked the damn tuna with catnip. Yang's face devolved into a demonic grin, and she traipsed back to the closet to get the other supplies that she had procured.

_[Five hours later]_

"You're so cute!" Yang gushed, taking yet another photograph on her scroll. "Give us a 'nyaa,' Ms. Flufferbutt!"

"Nyaa~" Blake complied, tilting her head to the side while raising one of her fists to mimic a cat's paw.

Ever since the catnip had entered her system, Yang had taken advantage of her drugged state to initiate an extensive photoshoot of Blake in multiple outfits, ranging from the blatantly cat-inspired and fanservice based to the decidedly inappropriate. Currently, she was wearing a false cat's tail and a fuzzy black bodysuit. Yang had also given Blake a horrendously bad nickname, one that Blake was certain would stick around long after this incident was over.

"Aw... who's a good girl?" Yang continued, leaning down to ruffle Blake's hair. Hating the action, Blake still found herself leaning into Yang's palm and purring.

When Yang put away the camera, Blake held out hope for a full three seconds that the nightmare might be over. It wasn't. Instead, Yang pulled out a short rod with a string attached to the end, with a toy mouse attached to the end of the string. She swung it back and forth slowly, and Blake's eyes traced its movements as her purr morphed into a low growl. She pounced, far faster than Yang had expected, and caught the mouse between her teeth.

When Ruby and Weiss returned a few minutes later, they found Blake happily chewing on the toy mouse as Yang massaged her arm, attempting to encourage circulation after unwinding the string that had bit into it. She glanced up at the two sheepishly, greeting Ruby's look of confusion and Weiss' glare.

"You actually did it, didn't you?" Weiss asked, pinching the bridge of her nose as she remembered their shopping trip on the first day.

"Hehe...actually not..." Yang giggled, glancing over at Blake, who was still high on catnip.

"Did what?" Ruby asked, glancing between the three others.

"You don't want to know, Ruby" Weiss quickly butted in. "You don't want to know."

"Perhaps she does~" Yang grinned, looking meaningfully at Ruby and waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"YANG!" Ruby complained, and the rest of the night was spent as a battle royale between the two sisters, with Blake curled up happily on Weiss' lap, contentedly chewing on the mouse toy as the heiress stroked her ears.

_Perhaps these team-building moments aren't so bad..._ Blake thought to herself, grinning down at the tussling sisters. _Not so bad at all..._

Author's Note:

Hey guys! If you like the style you see, drop a request in the reviews or my PM inbox, and I'll get right on it. As always, have a great week guys:)


	4. Shots

**Shots  
Submitted by: Coolheadluke**

"What time is it?" Yang asked in a singsong voice, her enthusiasm overflowing.

"Yang, please..." Weiss moaned, already bracing for the inevitable outcome.

"FRIDAY FAMILY FUN NIGHT!" Ruby exclaimed, jumping up enthusiastically. Blake rolled her eyes, slipping a bookmark into the latest volume of the Ninjas of Love series, knowing that trying to resist Yang and Ruby's idea of a fun evening was futile.

"What game did you get for us tonight?" Weiss asked resignedly, also setting aside her schoolwork and turning her attention to the sisters.

"Since it is getting close to the holiday season..." Yang began, a mischievous smirk on her face. "I thought we'd have a little more 'fun' than usual!" She pulled two bottles out from under her bedsheets. One was an empty beer bottle, the other was a rather large and elegant-looking crystal bottle of vodka.

"Yang..." Blake said, looking askance at the supplies. "I openly admit that I'm a pervert, but isn't this taking it a little too far?"

"Don't misunderstand me!" Yang hurriedly backpedaled, seeing murder in both Blake's and Weiss' eyes. "I was planning on playing Truth or Dare! The bottle determines who you ask, so no one can pick on anyone else!"

"And the vodka?" Weiss asked dangerously.

"It's the forfeit system" Yang explained, trying to make it sound reasonable. "If you don't want to answer a truth, do a dare, or if the bottle lands on you when it's your turn, you take a shot."

"Setting aside the fact that underage drinking is illegal..." Weiss began, her anger beginning to boil. "You would rope even your little sister into this?!"

"I made her a tray of super sugary cookies!" Yang added, tugging at her sheets to reveal a plate of cookies covered in cellophane. "They have the same effect on her!"

"You've put a surprising amount of thought into this..." Blake muttered, rubbing her chin.

"Indeed" Weiss agreed, her anger only slightly mollified. "Though I'm not surprised that you used whatever resides within your skull that has the effrontery to call itself a brain to set up such a pointless game!"

"Think of it as a trust building exercise" Ruby unexpectedly joined in. "If you don't want to be put into a compromising situation yourself, don't do it to the rest of us. Truth or Dare can be a tame game, you know." The last sentence was more directed at her sister, and everyone in the room knew that Ruby had just saved Yang's bacon.

"Yeah" Yang quickly agreed, mentally scratching off half her dare list. "That's exactly what I was going for..."

"Good save, Xiao Long" Weiss grumbled, knowing that since Ruby now supported the game, there was no possible way she could wiggle out of it.

"We might as well get on with it..." Blake sighed, kneeling on the floor and snatching the beer bottle from Yang.

"Hey!" Yang exclaimed, trying to snatch it back as she sat on Blake's left.

"I personally believe that the first person to go should not be the one with the lewdest mind" Blake stated calmly, the bottle already spinning as Weiss and Ruby sat down. "The first few rounds typically define the tone of the game, and I want this to be as painless as possible..."

Blake trailed off, realizing that the bottle had landed on herself. Sighing again, she reached out and took the bottle of vodka (the cap of which conveniently served as a small shot glass) and measured out the first forfeit of the game. She knocked it back in one go, surprising everyone when she barely reacted to the strong drink.

"What?" she asked innocently. "We drank in the White Fang, it was a rather unhealthy coping mechanism for some of us." Everyone nodded, and Blake passed the bottle to Ruby, who was on her right. The crimsonette eagerly gave it a whirl, and it took a good minute and a half before it finally stopped on Blake.

"Truth or Dare?" Ruby asked excitedly.

"Truth" Blake responded, still wanting to keep the game tame and hoping her leader did as well.

"What is your ribbon made out of?" Ruby asked, her eyes twinkling.

"A dust-infused silk/spandex mix" Blake explained, for once glad that Ruby was a weapons fanatic. Ruby passed the bottle off to Weiss, who spun it with a grimace.

"Dare" Yang said confidently, seeing the bottle stop on her and not bothering to wait for Weiss to ask the question.

"For the rest of the game, whatever you dare someone else to do, you must also do yourself" Weiss stated after a moment's thought. Blake nodded, hoping that it would keep Yang from being too inappropriate.

"Forfeit" Yang said cheerily, pouring herself a shot of vodka and downing it with a slight cough. Weiss and Blake both internally cursed, having forgotten the forfeit system. Yang snatched the bottle and set it spinning, and it landed on Weiss.

"Truth or Dare?" Yang asked, thinking of options that would make the heiress squirm.

"Truth" Weiss predictably replied.

"Who was your first kiss, or, if you haven't had it yet, who do you want it to be with?" Yang asked.

"My sister" Weiss replied flatly, causing everyone's jaw to drop.

"Wha...?" Ruby and Yang began, and Blake looked at her with a new measure of respect.

"Don't jump to conclusions" Weiss huffed. "Winter was always a sickly child, and after my father became what he is today, we were all we had. I humored her every request, and one was that she wanted her first kiss to be with someone she loved, not some rich boy who wanted a share in our father's company. We both knew that finding a boy who truly loved her was next to impossible, so I volunteered."

Ruby nodded, knowing the importance that love held to young girls. Yang was impressed that Weiss had been so willing to answer, given her usual icy demeanor. Blake, who had assumed that the story had been something along those lines, took it as an excuse to view Weiss in a different light than the one the White Fang had forced on her. Not forgetting that they were in the middle of a game, however, Blake took the bottle and gave it a spin, idly watching the tip as it gently slowed to a stop, pointing to Yang.

"Truth or...?"

"Dare"

"Hmm..." Blake muttered, trying to think of something good. "I dare you to ask Ren on a date. It doesn't matter if he says yes or no." Yang winked and stood up, casually walking over to Team JNPR's dorm and knocking.

"Yes?" Ren replied, opening the door.

"Hey~" Yang said seductively, looping her arms around Ren's neck. "Want to have dinner sometime? Just you and me?" Ren looked at her with his trademark deadpan expression. Jaune sputtered in the background, evidently choking on something as Pyrrha took the opportunity to pound him on the back. Nora was busy studying a stack of papers, oblivious to the world.

"No" He said, slipping out from under Yang's embrace and moving to shut the door. "Anything else?"

"Nope" Yang replied, waltzing back to Team RWBY's dorm and shutting the door. As soon as she resumed her seat, Ruby had the bottle spinning. It landed on herself, and she cheered as Yang was forced to pass her a cookie, which she promptly devoured in a shower of crumbs. Weiss took the bottle and spun, landing it on Ruby.

"Truth or Dare?" Weiss asked, already growing bored with the game.

"Dare" Ruby replied happily.

"Defy physics" Weiss said, unable to think of anything else and curious to see how Ruby would respond. Without a second thought, Ruby sprinted onto the ceiling, where she stood upside-down for a good three seconds before falling back to the ground.

"Semblance?" Weiss asked, seeing a few rose petals falling gently.

"Semblance" Ruby replied, neither of them noticing Yang spinning the bottle until it landed on Weiss.

"Truth or Dare?" Yang asked. Weiss was about to reply with her stock answer of 'truth' when she noticed Ruby looking at her with her large puppy eyes.

"Dare..." Weiss muttered, equally afraid of Yang's imagination, the bottle of vodka, and Ruby's expression.

"Take a shot" Yang grinned, proffering the bottle. Weiss glared, but took the bottle and downed her first shot of alcohol.

_[Several Rounds Later]_

By now, everyone had paid multiple forfeits, and it showed. Yang was grinning and far less coordinated than usual. Ruby was jittering in her seat, eager to move but just as eager to get more of the cookies that counted as her forfeit. Weiss was struggling to focus her vision, unwilling to appear weak while intoxicated. Blake had long since abandoned her reserved shell, a blush permeating her cheeks as she eagerly spun the bottle, which stopped on Ruby."

"Truth or Dare?" Blake asked enthusiastically, a mischievous grin on her face.

"Dare" Ruby replied, hoping it was horrible so she could get another cookie.

"Have you had your first kiss?" Blake asked, wanting to make sure her dare was good enough.

"No...but that's not a dare!" Ruby belatedly realized.

"It was conversation" Blake dismissed. "As for your dare, kiss someone in this room, in any way you want. No one can say no." Yang and Weiss glared at Blake, but she shrugged it off. "She has to grow up sometime."

"Umm..." Ruby muttered, uncertain of who to kiss. Choosing Yang would just be awkward, since they were both sisters, so that left Weiss and Blake. Weiss would probably explode with if she kissed her, but intoxicated Blake had a mildly pervy look in her eyes that Ruby wanted nothing to do with.

"Can I take a forfeit?" she asked. Yang reached behind her for the cookies, only to discover that the plate was empty.

"Nope" Yang replied. "The cookie plate is empty."

"Just pick someone" Blake asserted, her blush growing a little more. Ruby jittered a little to buy time, before making up her mind. Deciding that she would rather face Weiss' wrath than Blake's drunken libido, she lunged forward and planted a kiss solidly on Weiss' lips.

* * *

"Can I pick the lock?" Jaune asked, curious as to what lay inside the next room.

"You can try~" Nora beamed from behind a small wall of books that protected her hidden documents from view. Jaune glanced at Ren, who nodded slightly. Nora was crazy, but even she went easy on new players. Jaune rolled the d20, smiling as the result came out as nineteen.

"You successfully pick the lock" Nora began, shuffling a few papers. "And the door before slowly creaks open. As you and the party look in, a small gust of wind blows out, accompanied by..."

"YEEEEEEAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHH!" A wild beserker scream came from Team RWBY's dorm, and Nora looked up happily as everyone else started in surprise.

"By a scream that sounded very much like that!" she exclaimed, continuing on with her narrative. "The source of the yells are..."

"I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU, XIAO LONG!" Weiss shrieked.

"I DELETED IT, I SWEAR!" Yang shouted back, a note of terror in her voice.

"...a charging barbarian, who has been exploring these mines ever since he lost his way..."

"BLAKE! HELP ME HOLD THEM DOWN!" Ruby shouted, sounding like she was trying to restore order.

"Do you think we should help them?" Jaune asked Pyrrha, who shook her head slightly.

"Yang snuck in alcohol" she explained. "So whatever is happening over there, we don't want to know."

"I use Stunning Fist" Ren calmly stated, one eyebrow raised at his roll. "With a natural twenty, apparently."

"The barbarian is stunned and close to death" Nora replied, running damage calculations for Ren's attack and his critical bonus.

"OH DUST, BLAKE?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Weiss exclaimed, accompanied by drunken giggling.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!" Nora exclaimed into the hallway, furious as she tallied the damage from Pyrrha and Jaune's combined basic attacks. Team RWBY went deadly silent, and Nora smiled.

"The barbarian dies" she continued cheerily. "How do you proceed?"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Hey guys, I'm back! I know that this oneshot isn't the most original, but what the hell, it was supposed to be mildly funny and prove that I'm still indeed alive. As always, drop your requests in the reviews or PM section, and have a great day guys:)


	5. Halloween (2014) Special!

**Halloween (2014) Special!  
Submitted by aceman88**

"C'mon, Weiss!" Ruby begged, putting on her best puppy eyes and staring deep into her partner's soul. "It'll be fun!"

"...No." Weiss replied, for once managing to look away from Ruby's pitiful gray gaze.

"Why not?" Ruby complained, evidently forgetting that she had been trying unsuccessfully for an entire week to get her partner to join her in on her grand idea.

"Because unlike you, I prefer to spend my evenings in a calm, normal manner" Weiss retorted, sitting down firmly at her desk. "Not going door-to-door in a costume and begging for candy."

"But Weiss..." Ruby whined, unsuccessfully trying to turn her partner around by the shoulders.

"Just forget it, Rubes" Yang broke in, seeing Weiss face beginning to set in anger. "I'm sure you and Nora will have plenty of fun, even without the ice queen."

Normally, Yang would have killed to see Weiss humiliated as she donned a costume and went trick-or-treating on Halloween, but she still vividly remembered what had happened to Cardin when he had suggested she go as an aristocrat with Blake as her pet. She shuddered slightly, remembering his screams as he had been carted off to a hospital in Vale and the cleanup crew in hazmat suits that had blockaded multiple corridors that day. Cardin still hadn't returned, even after a week of treatment. So no, even the great Yang Xiao Long, Master of Puns and Pranks, would lay off their resident Ice Queen. Just this once. For health purposes.

"Okay..." Ruby replied dejectedly, letting go of Weiss and shuffling off into the bathroom to change. The tension in the atmosphere slowly escalated as Weiss remained determinedly silent, and Yang desperately cast about for something to say that wouldn't result in an explosion. She was saved by the appearance of Blake, who quietly tapped on the window.

"Blake?" Yang and Weiss exclaimed in unison, the former staring blankly while the latter huffed and opened the window.

"Sorry" Blake apologized, hopping inside the room. "But some of the students have gone a little crazy with Halloween pranks and I decided to avoid the hallways." Weiss and Yang nodded, and Blake began to pack books into a small backpack.

"The library seemed relatively safe" she continued. "So I'm going there to catch up on some homework. Want to come, Weiss?" Weiss shook her head.

"I'm done with my work, so I was planning on staying here to clean Myrtenaster's dust chamber" she explained. "And I'm not as graceful as you when it comes to acrobatics."

"Your semblance would work just as well" Blake chuckled. "But whatever. Have fun, guys." So saying, she slipped the pack onto her back and hopped out the window, disappearing into the evening.

"At least she's doing something productive" Weiss huffed, closing the window and sitting back down. Yang opened her mouth to retort, but her opportunity was stolen by the reemergence of her sister.

"Here's Ruby!" Ruby cheered, exploding out of the bathroom in a whirlwind of rose petals. She was dressed in a black outfit with multiple patches of semi-spiky white armor with red designs. She wore a simple plastic mask, which completed her homemade beowolf costume. Weiss rolled her eyes, not really understanding her energetic leader's obsession with the beasts. Seriously, they were prey. Why glorify something you killed for a living? Yang grinned at Ruby's appearance, proud of her younger sister's industry and enthusiasm.

"C'mon Ruby, I'm sure Nora is waiting for us" Yang commented, ushering her sister out the door. Ruby happily complied, and flew over to knock politely on Team JNPR's door. It was opened immediately by Nora, who was wearing a frilly pink princess dress that went from her shoulders to her toes. The two squeed at the cuteness of the other, and immediately pulled each other into a hug.

Yang smiled a little as she closed the door to Team RWBY's dorm, her eyes widening a little at the sight of Nora's guardian. Instead of a stoic Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos was standing just behind Nora, awkwardly waiting for the hug in front of her to stop.

"Ren back out at the last instant or something?" Yang asked, already preparing to tease him for his cowardice.

"Well..." Pyrrha said, grinning and rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. "I kinda managed to break his ankle during close-combat practice, so he's staying behind with Jaune..."

"Indeed" Jaune confirmed, swapping Ren's current ice pack for a fresh one. "You guys have fun out there, k?"

"You got it, Vomit-Boy" Yang smirked, nimbly dodging the spent ice pack as it sailed past her head. Pyrrha hurriedly closed the door before the situation could escalate. The last thing she needed was both of the male members of JNPR in the infirmary. Ruby and Nora separated themselves, each clutching their empty candy sacks.

"Special Mission: Halloween Sweets Retrieval, BEGIN!" Ruby shouted dramatically, pulling down her mask and leading a heroic charge down the hallway. Both Yang and Pyrrha sprinted to catch up, glad that they had decided to wear comfortable street clothes as they raced after the two sugar-obsessed teenagers.

* * *

"KA-BOOM!" a vividly Scottish accent roared, taunting the fallen meat chunks of yet another foolish Spy.

"You know" Jaune said, groaning as his screen freeze-framed on the laughing form of a hulking black man with an eyepatch and massive grenade launcher. "The concept of you emulating Nora's fighting style is terrifying."

"Indeed" Ren smirked, already beginning to set up another sticky-bomb trap. "Wait, scrap the fight. The Headless Horseman is spawning." Jaune quickly changed his class to the Heavy before he respawned.

"This isn't gonna work, not with just the two of us..." he commented, unloading rounds from his minigun into the terrifying axe-wielding boss.

"All we have to do is camp the resupply room" Ren asserted, baiting the Horseman through his sticky trap and dealing a decent amount of damage. "And have an escape route in case he gets too close."

"Simple enough..." Jaune replied, already planning multiple paths for them to take should the need arise.

* * *

"Thank you!" Ruby chirped, flashing the shop owner a massive grin and pulling her mask back down. She and Nora descended the few steps from the shop and rejoined Yang and Pyrrha, who were now slightly out of breath from dashing around.

"How does that make, Rubes?" Yang asked, flashing her signature grin.

"That's twenty down, just over sixty to go!" Nora answered for the two of them, and Pyrrha sighed.

"Don't you think all that candy is just a little unhealthy?" she asked plaintively.

"Nope!" Ruby responded. "I need all the extra sugar to fuel my semblance, and Nora...is Nora."

"C'mon Pyrrha!" Yang said, throwing an arm around the Mistral Champion. "Doesn't this remind you of your own childhood? Wandering around after dark, wearing a costume, making adults coo over your cuteness?"

"Actually..." Pyrrha trailed off, whatever she was about to say forgotten. "Come out now, before I consider you my enemy." They were passing by an alleyway, which Pyrrha turned to face with a stoney expression. Four thuggish looking men stepped out, grinning innocently-diabolical grins.

"Whatever do you mean?" one asked, his voice rugged and uncouth. "We're just relaxing in an alleyway, having some Halloween fun."

"Yeah" another concurred. "Collecting candy and all that. You're never too old to go trick-or-treating."

"You're going too?!" Nora exploded in happiness. "Ohhh! What's your costume? Wait, let me guess...Generic mugger?"

"Close enough" the third man shrugged, grinning. "And you're one lovely princess there, miss."

"Thank you!" Nora beamed, flashing a truly enormous grin. Yang and Pyrrha were frowning, and even the socially inept Ruby was uneasy. These four men radiated with an unpleasant aura, though their intentions were somewhat unclear.

"You must like candy, eh?" the fourth asked, as if the idea had just occurred to him. Nora and Ruby nodded. "Well, we collected rather a lot already, right lads?" The others nodded, mumbling in general agreement.

"So, why don't we share?" he continued. The others nodded again, still smiling. Nora also nodded, and traipsed off after them into the alley.

"You armed?" Yang whispered to Pyrrha, quietly tightening the straps of Ember Cecelia under the sleeves of her sweatshirt as she held Ruby back even as Nora skipped obliviously ahead.

"No" Pyrrha responded, regretting not grabbing Nora when she had the chance. "But three of them are carrying knives, the fourth has a gun."

"Your semblance can tell you that?" Yang asked, surprised.

"I'm just counting the number and relative size of objects I can affect on their person" Pyrrha explained. "It's not all that impressive."

"Hey, that isn't candy!" Nora exclaimed.

"And that's our cue" Yang muttered, flaring her aura as she flew into the alleyway, Pyrrha right on her heels.

_[Five minutes later]_

Flashing red and blue lights filled the alleyway as the four thugs were cuffed and hauled away by the Vale police department. Yang stood with an embarrassed grin on her face, sheepishly explaining that she had shattered the pavement with a thug's body when he had tried to grope her sister. Pyrrha was calmly informing the paramedics of various internal injuries that they may have suffered, given the force and placement of her blows. Ruby and Nora were busy ignoring the whole situation, swapping candy and trying not to get their faces covered in chocolate residue.

* * *

Blake was sitting quietly in the library, notes and textbooks spread out in front of her. She had just finished a massive paper on Grimm biology for Professor Port, and her brain ached. Trying to cobble together all such important papers from his random and embellished stories and self-study of multiple texts had finally taken its toll on her, and she pushed herself back in her chair, exhausted. Had she been in a more ready state of mind, she would have noticed the tell-tale signs of a prank beginning. As it was, she merely began to pack up her supplies, oblivious to the light footfalls behind her.

"Blake..." A rasping voice called, low and and creepy. "Blake..." As she turned her head, all the lights in the library suddenly cut out. She was left staring at a figure clothed in a torn and ragged black robe, a hood pulled low over their skeletal face.

"Blake..." the voice repeated, reaching out with boney fingers encased in rusted steel gauntlets. "Atone for your sins..." Blazing red orbs stood out through the skull's eyes, and Blake panicked. She had always had a problem with spirits and spooks, and in her current state, the phantasm unlocked a whole illogical thought process, spiraling through the faces of everyone she had robbed, harmed, or killed while she was in the White Fang. Not realizing that the dead don't come back, she bolted for the door, her eyes wide with terror.

"Repent..." another voice called just before she reached it, and another black-robed figure stepped out of the shadows. Even as it reached out to grab her, Blake ducked to the side, trying to reach a different door.

"Burning...bleeding..." A third figure moaned, jumping down from on top of a bookcase. This figure's cloak began to smolder, dark liquid dripping from his limbs. "The pain..."

Blake, now nearly sobbing from fear and memories, sprinted past the figure and dove out the window, not bothering to check if it was open first. The glass shattered spectacularly, leaving shallow cuts on her face and arms. Gasping at the sudden pain and unable to think clearly, she crashed into the ground, her sloppy roll barely breaking her fall enough to keep her from being hurt.

"Blake..." the figures converged on the broken window, their skull-like faces illuminated by the burning cloak. She scrambled to her feet, running away inelegantly with tears streaming down her face.

* * *

"Well, that was a thing" Yang commented, after the group was finally let go after an hour or two.

"Not exactly what I had in mind for Halloween" Pyrrha added, stifling a yawn. "Everyone in favor of going back to Beacon?" There was a murmured chorus of 'yes,' and they all set out for the nearest airship dock.

"Hey, Pyrrha?" Yang asked after a few minutes, a sleeping Ruby held in her arms.

"Hmm?" Pyrrha responded, keeping a watchful eye on Nora as the bubbly bomber skipped ahead of them, her candy bag swinging to and fro.

"You never answered my question about when you were younger" Yang explained.

"Oh, that..." Pyrrha said, drawing out the sentence unnaturally. "Yeah... I never really went as a kid."

"You what?!" Yang exploded, unable to comprehend why a kid wouldn't go out on Halloween.

"I was already famous as a child prodigy and a public figure by age six" Pyrrha continued. "I had too many fans, so my parents deemed it irresponsible of them to let me out at night. Thus, I never really participated in Halloween beyond watching kids pass by as they came to the house."

"You mean you never went for candy?" Pyrrha shook her head. "Never played pranks?!" Pyrrha again shook her head, an apologetic smile on her face.

"We need to fix that" Yang declared, striding forward purposefully and dragging Pyrrha by the hand. "C'mon Nora! We're giving Pyrrha an unforgettable Halloween!"

* * *

Weiss almost had a heart attack when Blake suddenly pounded on the door, sobbing and begging to be let in. She hurriedly opened the door and Blake nearly knocked her over as she sprinted inside and slammed the door behind her. Leaning against it, her legs gave way as she buried her face in her hands and sobbed. To say that Weiss was surprised would be an understatement. She had never seen Blake display such a degree of emotion, had indeed thought that the faunus girl was incapable of anything beyond slight changes in expression or tone. Blake had always given off an aura of being coldly untouchable, of being impervious to harm. To see her in such a state was both baffling and unsettling.

"Hey" Weiss finally said, kneeling down next to her teammate. "Hey, you alright?" Blake shook her head, still keeping her face hidden.

"What happened?" Weiss asked, before kicking herself at how insensitive it sounded. Blake didn't respond, but she began shaking a little harder. Weiss was not the most experienced when it came to comforting others, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try. Doing the first thing that came to mind, she shifted herself to be next to Blake and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"You're going to be alright" she asserted. "You're in our dorm, noth-" Weiss was cut off suddenly when Blake threw her arms around her, hugging her tightly as she buried her head in Weiss' shoulder.

Weiss managed to unfreeze herself a few seconds later, unused to such close contact. She tentatively wrapped her other arm around Blake, and kept it there when Blake pulled herself closer to her. Weiss simply held her teammate for awhile, slowly rubbing her back. Slowly, Blake managed to get her emotions somewhat under control, and her shaking and sobbing died down.

"Want to talk about it?" Weiss asked, not letting go of Blake.

"...ghosts..." Blake murmured, sounding equal parts fearful and ashamed as she kept her head in Weiss shoulder.

"Ghosts?" Weiss repeated, stunned.

"I have a problem with ghosts, okay?" Blake snapped, her emotions still close to the surface. "They bring back too many unpleasant memories..." She shuddered, still seeing the faces of those she'd hurt swimming in her vision.

"Alright..." Weiss began diplomatically, not wanting to offend the teammate most likely to hate her. "Everyone has a right to be afraid, but you do realize that the dead don't come back, right?" Blake stiffened, and for a moment Weiss thought she had said something wrong. Then Blake relaxed, slumping against Weiss.

"I know..." she said, her voice weary. "I know, but knowing doesn't change the past, stop the nightmares..."

"What nightmares?" Weiss asked.

"Tell me, Weiss" Blake said, raising her head slightly and locking her amber eyes with Weiss' sapphire ones. "Have you ever hurt someone? Intimidated them? Threatened to burn down their home or kill their family? Have you ever actually pointed your sword at someone with the intent of ending their life?" Weiss shook her head, unable to speak.

"I have" Blake continued, not wanting to continue but unable to stem the words that finally came rushing out of her mouth. "I've seen countless faces in the moments before the White Fang took everything from them. Arrogant faces, vengeful faces, pleading faces, innocent faces. But they all shared one characteristic: fear. In the final moments before their lives were ruined or taken they all expressed a deep, scarring fear. It's an expression that only a monster could love, an expression that haunts me every time I close my eyes. Because that's what I was, Weiss. A monster. A monster that saw hunting humans as the only way out of her oppression. Even though I haven't supported the Fang in years, I fear that some part of me wants to rejoin them. I want them taken down because of the threat that they pose to society, but also because of the threat that they pose to me. What would happen if I went back to the way I was, Weiss? How would I act? What would I do? What would happen to team RWBY?" Tears had again formed in Blake's eyes, her voice had broken down long ago.

Not for the first time that night, Weiss was stunned. She had known and accepted that Blake had once been part of the White Fang, had decided that she didn't care. What she hadn't known was the true depths of Blake's trauma from being in the group, of her self-doubt and lingering fears. She hadn't known of Blake's nightmares and inner turmoil, the stoic girl was simply far too skilled in hiding her true self. For her to be confessing like this, to Weiss "Ice Queen" Schnee of all people, she must have finally hit a considerable breaking point.

_She looks so lost..._ Weiss realized, staring into Blake's tear-filled amber eyes. _Even within Team RWBY, she's always been apart, alone. All she wants is acceptance, but it isn't from us that she needs it. She needs it from herself..._

Weiss was not an empathetic person by nature. However, her sudden glimpse into Blake's private life had completely rewritten her perspective of the faunus girl. What she had seen before as shyness and reservedness she now recognized as depression and self-hate. What had once been the immovable pillar of Blake's stoicism was now revealed to be a thin veil, a front designed to keep unwanted outsiders away. Weiss knew that if Blake was allowed to stay her course, she could very well be led down a horrible path of self-destruction. She should know, she had briefly flirted with the idea when she was younger and less mature, seeking some closure to her family problems. Her saving grace had been her younger sister, Winter. Perhaps all Blake needed was someone to care for her, even as she cared for them?

"Shh..." Weiss muttered, pulling Blake into a closer embrace. "It'll be alright, Blake..."

"But..." Blake protested, a little surprised at the sudden warmth emanating from Weiss.

"It'll be fine" Weiss insisted, squeezing Blake slightly to shut her up. "Whatever happened in your past, Blake, is in the past. You forsook that life, right?" Blake nodded slightly.

"Then that's that" Weiss stated. "The monster you see yourself as is dead and buried, it has been ever since you left the Fang. And it's about damn time that you see that for yourself."

It was Blake's turn to be stunned. The whole situation was just too unreal for her to process all at once. In an emotional outburst, she had thrown herself at Weiss Schnee, heiress to Schnee Dust and daughter to the greatest racist of the age. But, instead of hurling her away, Weiss had embraced her with open arms. Not only that, but she was willing to forgive everything that Blake had done in the past, had apparently already forgiven her. She had been walking on eggshells around Weiss, hoping against hope to not offend her, even after Weiss had told her that she didn't care about Blake's criminal past. Blake felt a small warmth beginning to glow within her, something she hadn't felt since her former partner Adam Taurus had embraced the sadism and extremism of the new White Fang. She wasn't sure if she wanted to encourage that warmth, open up to someone else when they could so easily tear her apart. Yet she had already shared her deepest fear with the heiress, so no matter what she decided, her fate was in Weiss' hands.

"You can't hate yourself forever, Blake" Weiss said, her voice mirroring Winter's sisterly concern and love when she had said the same thing to the heiress. That was the last straw for Blake. All the pent-up self-hate and doubt within her came rushing out, and she hugged Weiss tighter than ever, struggling not to cry.

"It'll be alright" Weiss said, stroking Blake's onyx tresses with one hand as she reciprocated Blake's hug. "Everything will be alright..."

* * *

"Are you sure this is alright?" Pyrrha asked, looking uncertainly at the small horde of hastily-forged metal bats in front of her.

"Of course!" Yang declared, patting Pyrrha on the shoulder. "All you have to do is lay there and look dead. When some poor shmuck comes along, I'll play the spooky music, you cause the bats to fly with your semblance, and stare at them while sitting up."

"It still sounds like a bad idea..." Pyrrha muttered, glancing at herself in a mirror.

Yang had raided her makeup supply, apologizing to Ren and Jaune as she interrupted their game. Now she looked like an undead version of herself, with extremely pale skin, her hair messy, and a trickle of fake blood running down her chin. She was dressed in black fabric that Yang and Ruby had haphazardly sewn into a torn and sinister black dress. The whole idea was to make herself look like a vampire, hence all the bats. Still, Pyrrha was new and unused to the whole idea of pranks, and wasn't quite sold on the whole idea. She wasn't given a choice however, when Yang threw her bodily to the floor and hid in a nearby classroom. All that was left was to play the waiting game...

"Did you see her face?" a male voice asked, sounding a little high-pitched and arrogant.

"Yeah!" another replied, happily cruel. "She was beyond terrified!"

"That'll teach her to put our leader in the hospital" a third chimed in, seeming to be more interested in going with the flow than actually interested in vengeance. Pyrrha's mind turned these voices over a few times and realized that they belonged to the remainder of Team CRDL.

"All we have to do now is prank Weiss" the first voice continued, confirming her suspicion. "And our revenge will be complete." Footsteps turned the corner, and Pyrrha smirked into the ground, now determined to put on quite the show. Yang cued the music, which was rather eerie, and Ruby cut the lights. Though this was an unexpected addition, Pyrrha knew that it would add to the creepy ambience.

"Oi..." one of the boys muttered, stumbling. "Who...?"

"Hello...boys..." Pyrrha rasped, using her semblance to carefully repel the pins still in the back of her dress, giving her the appearance of being pulled up by puppet strings. She rolled her head to the side, gazing at the boys with the creepiest smile she could muster. With her eyes glowing a vibrant green, her teeth showing in an unnatural grin, and her messy red hair cascading down across her shoulders and back like a stream of fire, the effect was rather impressive.

"What the..." one of the boys, Bronzewig, if Pyrrha remembered his name correctly, started to squint, as if he almost recognized her.

"Beautiful night" Pyrrha continued, her rasp now slightly playful. "To die, that is." With a flick of her wrist, she sent the metallic bats flying in a spiral around her. The boys stumbled back in shock, then in pain as the bats closed in on them.

"Screw this!" one of them exclaimed, ditching his comrades as he ran in the opposite direction. He was followed soon after by the two others, who were swearing profusely as they vainly attempted to beat back the bats. Pyrrha maintained her demonic appearance until she was certain that they were out of earshot, then burst out giggling. She'd have to ask Yang to include her in future Halloween pranks.

* * *

"You know what, Ren?" Jaune asked, lounging on his bed as the two hunters continued to play their game.

"What, Jaune?" Ren replied, his face a blank mask as he escorted the bomb for the final few meters, ending the match with a resounding explosion and the announcer screaming 'You Win!'

"This is just a hunch..." Jaune continued, swapping his class to the Pyro before the next match began. "And as fun as videogames are and all, I'm pretty sure we just missed out on a pretty significant evening."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Hey guys! Another oneshot this weekend! I know it's a little early for halloween proper, but it's never too early to get in the mood! Anyway, this is a community-driven story, so if you like what you read, drop me a PM or Review with an idea or story you'd like to see and I'll type it up for you. As always, have a great week guys:)


	6. Eye of the Beholder

**The Eye of the Beholder  
Submitted by: aceman88**

Weiss calmly stood in front of the bathroom mirror in the Team RWBY dorm, appraising her appearance with a critical eye. Her frost-white hair was pulled back into a ponytail precisely forty-five degrees off-center. Her azure eyes shone from her face, enhanced by the merest dusting of makeup. Her bolero jacket was held open just the right amount, accentuating her white blouse and combat skirt combo. Her heeled boots were laced to the top, the bows of their knots precisely even.

To anyone else, she would have appeared flawless, beautiful. To herself, she looked below average. One hand ghosted up to trace the scar that ran across her eye, the one imperfection on her face. She had long debated on whether or not to cover the scar with makeup, or just ask her father to foot the bill for cosmetic surgery. In the end she decided against both of those options, for as much as she disliked the scar, it gave her a convenient excuse to not think about her other major imperfection.

Almost as if the thought compelled her eyes to move, she felt them shift until she was staring at her chest in the mirror. Her flat, boyish chest. She knew that envy was not a becoming trait, but she was a girl, for Dust's sake! She didn't exactly desire Yang's monstrosities, but would it have killed anyone for her to be slightly more endowed, perhaps along the lines of Blake or Ruby? Ruby! She was fifteen, two years younger, and she still had a larger chest than her!

Weiss felt herself slump down against the wall, her biweekly examination of herself ending, as always, in tears. She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, hiding her face in their convenient darkness as she slowly tried to rock herself back and forth. She knew that she was being petty, that to compare oneself to others would only ever result in sorrow and dissatisfaction. Yet, it was all she had ever known. Her family had always compared themselves to the great figures of their house, each generation striving to outdo the last. Weiss supposed that the feeling of inadequacy was intended to spur the Schnee on to greater heights, and while that may work for some people, it always left her as an emotional wreck.

She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't notice the light-hearted humming until it was just outside the door, a door that Weiss only now realized that she had forgotten to lock. She scrambled to her feet, furiously wiping her eyes with her sleeve as the door was enthusiastically thrown open. A pajama-clad Ruby paused with one arm outstretched, realizing her mistake as she saw a red-eyed and irate Weiss quickly lowering her arm.

"Would it kill you to knock, dolt?" Weiss demanded, putting all the frigidity that she could muster into the insult. The attempt fell flat as her voice wavered, her breathing still affected by her crying.

"Weiss?" Ruby asked quietly, her body frozen as she took in the person in front of her.

"What?" Weiss snapped, much more viciously this time. Ruby flinched, but didn't back down.

"Were you...crying?" Ruby asked, almost faltering before finding new courage halfway through the question.

"No" Weiss adamantly denied, gritting her teeth. "A Schnee does not..."

"Huphuphup!" Ruby interjected, flashing up to Weiss and putting a finger against her lips. From this distance the signs of her teammate's distress were even more obvious, and she'd be damned if she let Weiss suffer in silence. "There you go again with 'A Schnee does this' and 'A Schnee doesn't do that.' We're your _team_, Weiss. You don't have to be a Schnee around us."

Weiss stood in shock, her leader's finger effectively silencing any and all retorts she could have made. Ruby was looking at her with those huge, soulful grey eyes of hers, and Weiss found herself falling into their open gaze. Without even realizing it, she had stepped forward and embraced Ruby, burying her head in the crimsonette's shoulder as she silently resumed crying. Ruby, after a moment of surprise, wrapped her arms around Weiss' waist, letting the older girl cry to her heart's content.

After a few minutes, Weiss had calmed down enough to raise her head from Ruby's shoulder, and the younger girl met her partner's reddened eyes calmly. She gently tugged at Weiss' arms, and the older girl followed her back out into the Team RWBY dorm. Ruby sat down on the edge of Weiss' bed, and Weiss followed her after a moment's hesitation, making sure that there was at least some space between them.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ruby asked quietly, respectfully.

Weiss took a deep breath, weighing her options. She could refuse, keep her woes in the dark and spare herself the agony of having someone tear her apart. Or she could accept, spill her guts to Ruby, and brace herself for the inevitable laughter and derision at her pettiness. She glanced over at her red-themed partner, who was sitting with perfect patience, waiting for her to decide where the conversation would go. Weiss sighed. This was Ruby Rose she was dealing with, if the girl decided she really wanted to know something, she'd stop at nothing until she knew.

"Yeah..." Weiss finally said, deciding to take the plunge and get the situation over with as quickly as possible. "Tell me, have you ever looked in a mirror and..." she glanced again at Ruby, not really knowing if the younger girl would understand.

"...and felt dissatisfied with what you saw? And I don't mean dissatisfied with your outfit, I mean dissatisfied with yourself."

"Usually after I flunk a test" Ruby replied after a moment's thought, frowning as if she wanted to say more, but didn't.

"Alright" Weiss nodded, she could use that as the basis of her comparison. "And you usually feel pretty down about that, right?" Ruby nodded. "Well, take that same feeling, multiply it by about a hundred times, and you'll have a vague idea of how I feel when I look in the mirror."

"And how do I make the idea clearer?" Ruby asked, flinching a little at Weiss' downtrodden tone.

"You add in a touch of depression at the knowledge that what you're feeling down about can't be changed" Weiss replied, slouching over to rest her forehead on her hands. "And a healthy dose of an irrepressible urge to compare yourself to others."

"Okay..." Ruby said slowly, mentally processing everything Weiss just told her. "So, correct me if I'm wrong, you're insecure about your own appearance, want to look more like everyone else, and get depressed over the fact that you can't?"

"That about sums it up, yes" Weiss replied, internally tensing up as she waited for Ruby to ask the inevitable question.

"What for?" Ruby asked, and Weiss couldn't decide if she sounded more concerned or disappointed.

"I'm not very...feminine..." Weiss stated quietly, starting to regret her decision to talk to Ruby.

"Feminine?" Ruby muttered, obviously confused.

"My assets aren't really there" Weiss clarified, hoping the younger girl would catch on.

"Assets?" Ruby repeated, and Weiss cursed the girl's innocence.

"I'm flat-chested!" Weiss finally exploded, lifting her head to glare at Ruby. "My breasts are practically nonexistent! If I cut my hair and wore a different outfit, I'd easily be mistaken for a boy! And you don't have any idea how annoying this is to me, because even you, fifteen-year-old Ruby Rose, has bigger breasts than me!" Ruby stared at Weiss in amazement for several seconds, her face frozen in shock. Then her brain clicked back into gear, and she immediately glomped her partner with a massive hug.

"Oh Weiss..." Ruby mumbled into her partner's ear. "Please tell me you don't see yourself that way...please..."

"R-Ruby?!" Weiss exclaimed as Ruby's deceptively strong arms pulled her down onto the mattress, drawing her in close.

"So what if your chest isn't what you want it to be?" Ruby asked rhetorically, sounding like she was having difficulty controlling her voice. "That's only one aspect of your appearance, and even if it was a problem, which it isn't, by the way, it's more than compensated for by everything else that's beautiful about you."

"But I'm not..." Weiss began, giving up on trying to break free of Ruby's grip.

"Yes you are!" Ruby interrupted, giving Weiss a reassuring squeeze around the waist before ghosting one hand up to stroke her hair.

"Your hair is really long and impossibly silky, and you always have it perfectly styled in that off-center ponytail of yours." She looked into Weiss' eyes, only a few inches away from her own grey gaze.

"Your eyes are the purest blue I've ever seen, looking into them is like staring into the infinite sky." She noticed Weiss about to retort, and she quickly cut her partner off.

"And before you mention it, your scar only accentuates them. It gives your gaze both an intimidating intensity and a rugged kindness." She gently intertwined her legs with Weiss', who surprisingly offered no resistance.

"And your legs..." Ruby blushed slightly, but forced herself to continue. "They're long and slender for someone of your stature, and beautifully pale. I kinda wish that you'd wear shorter boots, just so I could see more of them...they're much prettier than mine..." By now her face matched her signature cloak, and the momentary burst of courage that came when she saw Weiss crying finally faded away, leaving her speechless.

Weiss was equally unable to talk, her mind slowly processing everything Ruby had just said. She had never considered what other people had thought of her appearance, only her own in comparison to everyone else. Fitting Ruby's lens over her own gaze changed everything. She was no longer Weiss Schnee, the heiress who absolutely had to be perfect at everything. She was just Weiss, a girl just like any other, whose 'imperfections' melded with her 'better' traits to create someone whose beauty was unique to them. She blinked away a few tears, a smile struggling its way across her face.

She met Ruby's gaze, silently letting her know that everything was alright. She felt her partner relax, showing no signs of wanting to move. Weiss briefly debated suggesting that they get up, to avoid Yang's teasing if nothing else, when the second part of Ruby's last sentence derailed her thoughts.

_'They're much prettier than mine,' she said..._ Weiss thought to herself, glancing at Ruby. Does she have some insecurities as well? Knowing that the only way to learn was to ask, she tentatively slipped her arms around Ruby's waist in preparation for the question. If Ruby was going to bolt, Weiss wanted to have as a great a chance as possible at stopping her. Ruby mumbled something contentedly at the contact, snuggling a little closer to Weiss. Vigorously ignoring how cozy their position was, and how cute Ruby looked when her eyes were closed, Weiss popped the question.

"What was that about me having prettier legs?" Ruby instantly stiffened, and Weiss tightened her grip just in case.

"..." Ruby muttered something, her face going completely red again.

"What was that?" Weiss asked, unable to hear despite being only a few inches away.

"...I was hoping you hadn't heard that..." Ruby repeated, squirming a little to get comfortable in Weiss' stronger grip.

"I'm sorry, but I did" Weiss stated gently but firmly. "And I really want to know what you meant."

"Well, it's true..." Ruby weakly protested, trying and failing to make that once sentence seem logical. "Your legs are smooth, toned, perfectly proportioned, flawless..." she trailed off, burying her head in Weiss' shoulder so her face couldn't be seen.

While Ruby made herself comfortable, Weiss was struck with a sudden realization. Not once had Ruby shown her legs to anyone on the team. Her combat attire covered them with a pair of tights, and her pajamas included sweatpants. She even changed in the bathroom, while the rest of them were comfortable enough to change in each other's presence (with backs politely turned, of course). Now very curious as to why Ruby was so shy about her legs, Weiss relaxed her hold somewhat, setting one of her hands to work gently rubbing small circles on Ruby's back.

"Smoothness isn't that hard" Weiss said, feeling Ruby slowly relax in her arms. "It's all in the proper care. I can lend you some of my razors and moisturizer until we can take a trip into Vale to get some of your own. As for being toned, that just comes with exercise. I'm certain that yours are far more in shape than mine what with all the running you do. As for flawless... I guess that's just in the eye of the beholder, right?" Ruby slowly shook her head in Weiss' shoulder, mumbling something about being disgusting.

"Look at the person you're speaking to, Ruby" Weiss reminded her. Ruby pulled her head back and looked at Weiss, and the heiress was surprised to discover tears standing out in Ruby's eyes.

"My legs" she stated quite calmly and steadily, though with trepidation in her eyes. "Are disgusting."

"Don't make me throw your own advice back at you" Weiss threatened, unwilling to let Ruby see herself as ugly.

"I guess you need to see them, then..." Ruby muttered, slowly extricating herself from Weiss' embrace. She slipped her sweatpants off with ease and stood in front of Weiss, slowly turning around for emphasis.

Weiss held in a gasp, Ruby's legs were covered in scars. They were long and arranged in sets of three parallel lines each. Some had healed better than others, and puffy pink lines were interspersed with smooth white ones.

"What happened?" Weiss demanded, sitting up on the bed.

"I was five" Ruby replied, all emotion draining out of her voice. "Beowolves decided to crash my birthday party. Dad killed them all, but not before one nearly clawed me in half." She shrugged. "They're hideous, no need to deny it."

"No" Weiss was surprised at the amount of force she had put behind that one word, but forged ahead without regret. "No, they're not. They're part of you, just like your crimson highlights and muscular arms and your hair that sways every time you swing your weapon." Weiss had stood up and gripped Ruby by the arms, staring into her partner's disbelieving face.

"They're part of you like the rose petals that appear from your semblance and your optimism and your beautiful, wide, soulful grey eyes..." as Weiss trailed off, they both realized that Weiss had back Ruby up against a wall while she was ranting, and they blushed in sync at the intimacy of their position. Still, Weiss had started her rant, and she was going to finish it, embarrassment be damned.

"You just taught me that we're more than the sum of our parts" Weiss continued, her azure eyes locked with Ruby's grey ones. "So don't ever say that any part of you is hideous or disgusting. Your legs are part of you, they're part of your story. And that could never be hideous." The two girls continued to stare at each other for a minute, Weiss waiting for Ruby's reply, and Ruby trying to get her brain to formulate something, anything to say.

Finally giving up on words, Ruby threw her arms around Weiss shoulders and held her close, breathing deeply as she fought back the tears that her emotions threatened to spill. She had never heard words that had comforted her on that level before, not even from Yang. She had spent years building up a wall around her heart with regards to her scars, never wanting to experience the pain of that day again. It was why she had been so willing to help Weiss, to prevent the 'Ice Queen' from getting any colder, to share with Weiss advice that she was too afraid to take herself. Even as Weiss had thrown that same advice back in her face after accepting her own imperfections, she had thought that she could remain strong on her own, that the bastion she had built around her feelings would endure. She could now feel the last remnants of that lonely fortress crumbling away as Weiss reciprocated her embrace, warmth flooding through her being as the heiress reassured her through simple touch that she was there, that everything would be alright.

Weiss had wrapped her arms protectively around Ruby the merest of instants after Ruby had embraced her, trying to convey a sense of warmth and belonging. She could understand the depths of Ruby's feelings, she had been living with similar ones all her life, and she refused to let her happy-go-lucky leader suffer in silence like she had. Weiss knew that she had little to no experience playing the role of the comforting sister, but if it was for Ruby, she was more than willing to try. If she was honest with herself, she had admired Ruby almost since she had met her at Beacon for maintaining her cheerful attitude despite everything they faced. Ruby had been the one that helped her forget the horribly formal and restrictive world she had come from. For that alone, Weiss would have been willing to stand here, comforting her partner as she let out years of pent-up emotion. But now, especially now that Ruby had helped fix her own issues, she was willing to do whatever it took to get Ruby to see herself as she saw her: a fearless young leader, possessed of a simple courage and trust that the world would become a better place, if only she were to reach out and grasp it.

_You're not alone..._ each thought about the other, snuggling into each other as they stood in a close embrace. _And you never will be again..._

* * *

**Author's Note:**  
Hey guys! I sincerely hope that this came across as sweet towards the end, otherwise I'll take it back for some revamping. Also, to the Guest who reviewed ch5, your request for RoseArc will be coming up in the next chapter, I promise:) As always, if you have a story prompt or idea that you'd like to see, just drop me a review or PM. I always respond and I have the utmost respect for everyone's ideas. Have a great week guys:)


	7. RoseArc

**RoseArc  
submitted by: Guest (ch5)**

"Become a hunter, they said" Jaune grumbled, hacking his way slowly through a cobwebbed corridor. "You'll be famous, they said. Glorious, they said. What a load of bull..."

The blond hunter hacked through some more cobwebs with unnecessary force, venting his frustration on the annoying masses of sticky thread. Jaune was a fully-fledged member of the Slayers of Beacon, an order of Hunters that that specialized in fighting the more humanesque demons, and he was currently having serious second thoughts about his choice of career. When he had signed up to train with Beacon, he had expected to be fighting alongside his fellow Hunters as they raided vampire covens and werewolf dens. What he had not expected was a message board, with requests posted by various people, and being required to make a certain amount of money each month in order to stay in Beacon.

Thus, in a last-minute bid to make this month's dues, he had taken a job to cleanse a mansion of any resident demons. According to the local rumors it had recently been inhabited by a vampire and his servants, and offered a correspondingly high reward. The mansion hadn't been too bad when he arrived, just a few recently-turned vampires that were too deeply into their bloodlust to fight properly. But that had been in the well-lit foyer. The farther he wandered into the mansion, the less light there was, and the more dangerous the servants had become. Only adding to his mental strain was the fact that he hadn't faced anyone in several minutes, even as he thoroughly explored the labyrinthine servants' quarters. His nerves were twitching, he really just wanted something, anything to appear so he could blow off some steam in a fight.

"HELLO?!" Jaune finally yelled, his voice echoing off the walls of a staircase that led both up and down. "ANY VAMPIRES IN HERE?! SUPPER'S READY!" He bashed his sword against his shield for effect, creating enough noise to wake the living dead, or so he hoped.

After a few moments, a draft of icy air blew down from upstairs, carrying the tones of insane laughter with it. Raggedly letting go of a breath he didn't know he was holding, Jaune took the stairs up two at a time, a relieved grin spreading across his face. The stairs ended in a simple door, which Jaune kicked down without hesitation, eager to get the whole affair over with. He now stood at the head of a great hall, with long tables and equally long benches arranged in rows for a nonexistent crowd of feasting revelers. The table just in front of him stood perpendicular to the others, and was the only one to have actual chairs for the guests. Quite obviously, it was for the lords and ladies of distinction who dined above their less-important guests.

"Done looking around?" a smooth, sarcastic voice asked, and Jaune took a step forward and spun around as he felt a hand close on his shoulder. A very pale man stood before him, sporting a bright white suit and with his orangish-red hair swept low over his right eye. Black gloves adorned his hands, and a cane swung nonchalantly from one of them.

"A vampire, I presume?" Jaune asked, raising his weapons.

"Indeed" the man replied, an unsettling look in his eyes as he closed the door Jaune had kicked in. "And you must be the Hunter that's been lurking around in my house? It was very amusing to watch you prowling through all those empty rooms. I hope you enjoyed the tension? The apprehension? The _fear_?" Jaune lashed out with his sword, intending to end the fight before it could even begin. His stroke was intercepted by the man's cane, and he kept right on talking as if he hadn't noticed the sudden attack.

"Yes, of course you did" the vampire stated. "Everyone who comes through here always says that Roman Torchwick is the master of suspense!" He twirled, swiping Jaune's sword away and striking at his head. Jaune hefted his shield and the blow rebounded harmlessly.

"Are you going to talk" Jaune asked, gritting his teeth in annoyance at the man's nonchalance. "Or are you going to fight?"

"Kids these days..." Torchwick mourned, sighing a little. "So impatient...to die!" He moved faster than the eye could follow, his cane singing around Jaune's ears as he pushed the Hunter back.

Jaune took most of the hits on his shield, deflecting the rest with his sword. He hooked a chair out with his leg as he backpedalled, sweeping it up and into Torchwick's side. The vampire grunted in surprise, and he stumbled back a step. That lapse in his guard was all Jaune needed, as he lunged forward shield first. Torchwick struck at Jaune, but his whole arm was swept away on the edge of Jaune's shield. Seeing that the vampire was still off-balance, Jaune allowed himself a small grin. Pushing his sword through the space recently vacated by his shield, he speared the vampire through the gut. Turning his lunge into a charge, he drove Torchwick back at an angle until the blade, emerging from the vampire's back, was firmly embedded in the stout oak of the table.

"You think that..._uhgn!_...this will kill me?" Torchwick taunted, pulling ineffectually at the sword in his gut as Jaune let go of the hilt and stepped back a pace.

"No" Jaune replied, striking Torchwick's wrist with the edge of his shield, forcing him to drop his cane. Reaching inside a pouch at his waist, he drew forth a stake made of green wood, prepared only minutes before he went inside the mansion. "But this will."

Planting a hand on the hilt of his sword, Jaune channeled his aura through the blade, burning Torchwick on the inside. As the vampire spasmed reflexively in pain, Jaune took his moment of opportunity to ram the stake through Torchwick's chest. A few seconds later, Torchwick was nothing but a small pile of ash on the floor.

"All talk..." Jaune muttered, wrenching his sword free of the table after a few attempts.

Sheathing his favorite weapon, he considered his options. Technically, since he had killed the master vampire of this mansion, all of his surviving servants and spawn would now be returning to the darkness from whence they came. So, if he felt like it, he could just make for the nearest exit and forget all about this place when his next job rolled around. Or, he could be a resourceful person and brave the cellars of the mansion in a search for abandoned gold or other valuables to fill his dangerously light purse. Sighing, he let his need for money win, and walked back down the staircase he had taken.

Passing the landing with the cobwebbed corridor, he continued down into the depths of the mansion. Quickly realizing that he could barely see in the utter blackness of the cellar, he drew his sword and flared his aura. The resulting white glow gave him just enough light to navigate by, though he did keep a lookout for any braziers or torches that he could light. The first room of the cellar had been stripped clean by the vampires, and had evidently been used as a living space for some of their lower-ranking members.

Jaune walked to the only door he could see and tried his luck in the next room. Again he was disappointed, as all he saw were endless floor-to-ceiling wine racks. Some had been emptied, others partially so, still others stood with a full selection of wine, still standing even after decades of neglect. Though he wasn't much of a drinker himself, Jaune still glanced over the labelled bottles and picked one that he felt was probably superior to the others. Renegotiating monthly dues was always easier when one came bearing gifts, after all.

After wandering for several minutes through the maze of wine racks, Jaune was almost ready to give up in disappointment. The only door he could find was the door that lead back to the first room, and thus back into the mansion. He glanced at the wines around him, wondering if their questionable monetary value was worth the effort of carting their weight back to Beacon. He had almost made the decision to pick several more bottles when he suddenly tripped over an unseen protrusion on the floor, falling with a comical grunt onto the floor. Cursing his poor balance, he looked back to see what he had tripped on. And smirked when he noticed the barely-perceptible rise of a handle in the floor.

Getting back on his feet, he wasted no time in pulling back the trapdoor, shining the light of his sword down into the hidden basement. Seeing a ladder and little else, he swung his legs down and gently gripped the sides of the ladder, letting gravity pull him down at a comfortable pace. Landing at the bottom, he hefted his glowing sword to shine the light as far as he could. What he saw sent shivers down his spine. It was a dungeon, complete with a rack, wheel, manacles embedded in the walls. Jaune felt no urge now to relight the few braziers that were present, seeing the long metal branding rods that still lay within them. He knew that no treasure would be hidden in a place such as this, and resolutely turned to climb the ladder, never to return.

Then he heard a pitiful whimper faintly echo from the surrounding darkness. He froze in his tracks, his ears straining to find out if he was imagining things. The whimper came again, louder this time, and accompanied by the clinking of chains. Turning back to face the dungeon, he stepped forward resolutely, his sword held aloft to maximize his vision. The whimpering led him to a corridor of cells, each more dilapidated than the last. Carefully stepping down the corridor, he glanced constantly to both sides, seeing empty cell after empty cell. The whimpering intensified as he drew closer to the end of the corridor, until finally he reached one cell that seemed to be somewhat well maintained.

Glancing through the bars, Jaune felt his body tensing in anger. Lying on the floor was a small, naked girl, a chained to the wall by a collar around her neck. She was curled into a ball as she tried to preserve her body heat, though her massive shivering clearly attested to her chill. Her hands were wrapped around her head, muffling her whimpers somewhat as she shook. Though Jaune would have felt a boiling rage at the situation no matter who was in that cell, in this case all he felt was a great sorrow. Curling around the girl's waist was a sad-looking, dirty tail, and peeking out from between her fingers were the tufts of ears. She was lycanthropic, and seeing as tonight was not a full moon, she had been both lucky and unlucky enough to contract the curse in a mild form. Lucky in that she had probably never been forced to transform against her will. Unlucky in that, even though such lycanthropes were proven to be harmless, they were still carriers of the curse and thus slain by Hunters with ruthless efficiency.

Jaune knew that it was his duty, especially as a member of Beacon, to kill this girl and be on his way. He tested the cell door, and found it to be unlocked. Pulling it open, he winced as the hinges let out a protracted squeal. The girl flinched, curling up tighter as her whimpers softened in fear. He was standing inside her cell now, his sword raised. All it would take was a single, clean stroke. He could kill a carrier of the curse and put an end to this girl's painful life in the same action. His hand shook as it was stayed by indecision. He looked closer at the girl. She was so harmless, so weak. Her shivering and whimpering state was pitiful to watch, and Jaune nearly averted his eyes before they landed on something else, something that hardened stilled his shaking fist with anger.

Scars. Long and short, jagged and curving, puncture and burn, all manner of scars were represented on the girl's back, all either fresh or barely healed. He knew that a lycanthrope's incredible capacity for physical recovery often led to them being abused by more powerful creatures of the night, but to see such an innocent girl in such a state made Jaune's blood burn. The last straw came when the girl shifted slightly, just enough to glance at Jaune with a pair of soulful silver eyes, eyes that shone with the fear of death as they snapped closed. The girl whimpered one last time before going silent, waiting for her end to come. Jaune readjusted his grip, taking a shuddering breath. This needed to end, now. Raising the sword slightly higher, he brought it down in a swift, clean arc.

The harsh scraping of metal going through metal briefly rang through the dungeon, and the girl flinched, slowly looking around. Jaune stood with his blade in one hand, the chain pulled taut in the other. Hefting the sword again, he struck another clean blow, splitting the weakened chain off from the wall. He stood with the end of it in his hand, still connected to the girl's collar. He glanced between it, the girl, and his sword several times. Sighing, he finally knelt a few feet away from the girl.

"Can...can you understand me?" Jaune asked, nervously readjusting his grip both on the chain and on his sword. The girl nodded, still curled into a ball.

"That's good..." Jaune replied, relieved. At least her mind wasn't gone. "You're probably pretty cold, right?" Again the girl nodded, her silver eyes confused but wary.

"I'm going to put the sword down now, alright?" Jaune informed her, slowly setting the glowing weapon against the floor. He kept the chain in hand just in case he needed something to control the girl, though he sincerely doubted he would at this point.

The girl made no move, and Jaune reached up to his throat with equal slowness, so as not to alarm her. He undid the brooch of the cloak that he wore, an old but comforting garment of faded red cloth. He gently offered it to the girl, who tentatively reached out to take it. Once Jaune was certain she had it in her grasp, he let go and slowly retracted his hand. The girl blinked at him, still holding the cloak at arm's length. Jaune smiled and nodded in encouragement, and she slowly drew the cloak to her. Feeling the soft, warm fabric against her dirty skin, she hurriedly threw it over her whole body, rolling into it and encasing herself in a small cocoon. She smiled a little as warmth began trickling back into her body.

"You like it that much, do you?" Jaune smirked, a warm glow forming in his own chest. The girl nodded a little more enthusiastically, then winced as the collar bit into her neck.

"I could get that off for you" Jaune offered, frowning at her pain.

The girl stared at him for several seconds, seeming to regret immobilizing herself inside the cape. Finally deciding that if he was planning to kill or torture her he would have done so already, she nodded slowly. Jaune let go of the chain and shuffled up next to her, lifting her dirty hair slightly as he examined the collar. It was old and somewhat rusted around the hinges, though it was still a very snug fit. Getting a firm grip on both sides of the hinged section, Jaune looked once more into the girl's eyes.

"This might hurt" he admitted apologetically. "On the count of three, okay?" The girl nodded, and Jaune began counting.

"One...Two...Three!" with a sharp jerk, Jaune snapped the collar in half.

Pulling the offending pieces of metal away from the girl's neck, he cast them aside with distaste. The girl whimpered again, rubbing the side of her chin against her neck while squirming slightly. Jaune reacted on instinct, lifting her head away and applying aura to heal the small wound that had been created, stemming the blood before it could truly begin to flow. he girl stiffened at the sudden contact, then relaxed as the warm glow of Jaune's aura soothed the brief flash of pain. She snuggled deeper into her cocoon, getting as warm and comfortable as she could.

Jaune sighed, knowing that sooner or later it would be time to go. He knew that he couldn't take the girl with him, just as he knew that he couldn't leave her here. He retrieved his sword, and carefully picked the girl up in his free arm. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to do with her, but he certainly wasn't going to leave her to face the world alone.

* * *

Warmth. Crackling logs. A soft glow before her lightly-shut eyelids. She tried to curl up, her habitual method of preserving body heat, but was stopped some constricting material. Suddenly panicked, she opened her eyes and was nearly blinded by the fire, thrashing about as she tried to tear herself free of the oppressive fabric around her. She succeeded in unravelling her prison, and she rolled across the ground, rising onto all fours to snarl at it. As her eyes adjusted to the firelight, she noticed several things. First, she had just broken out of a faded-red swath of warm fabric. Second, judging by the smell, she had been in there for several hours. Third, there was another bundle of fabric nearby, one that was slowly expanding and contracting as something breathed within it.

She carefully stalked towards this second bundle, her movements silent and swift. When she finally came close enough to get a good look at the bundle, she slowly relaxed. She recognized the messy shock of blond hair and pale face that stuck out at one end, he was the one who had broken her chains and let her out of that horrid cell. She glanced back at the faded-red cloak on the ground, a gift from the man. Knowing that was with a friend, she crawled back towards the cloak, missing its warmth despite the small fire. As she picked it up, she could smell both herself and the man on the cloak, their two scents melding into something that she found to be quite pleasing. Blushing a little, though she didn't know what for, she wrapped herself in the cloak, lay as close to the fire as she dared, and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_[One Year Later]_

A dark-haired girl with wolf ears frolicked through a field of wheat, her red cloak streaming out behind her. She was checking each acre for signs of disease or blight, her powerful eyes able to observe each stalk of wheat even as she sped past. She was quite familiar with this field, having worked it from end to end with the help of her greatest friend, Jaune Arc. She paused in the middle of her frolicking to lift her cloak to her nose. Even halfway through the day she could still smell Jaune's scent, as it served as their dependable blanket at night. She blushed a little as the image of Jaune's wide grin filled her mind.

She thought over everything that had happened in the past year, the year that had changed her life irreversibly for the better. Jaune had quit his job as a Hunter, using money that he had saved up to buy a very small farm on the outskirts of Patch. They had worked the fields together, hunting game to put food on the table and roasting small nuts and roots when they could not. They had learned how to properly tend crops, scare off scavenging animals, and to accept that the weather was never in your favor when you needed it most. They had slept beneath the same blankets to share their warmth during the cold nights, growing slowly more comfortable with the idea as time went on. Jaune had held her close when nightmares of the past had threatened to overwhelm her, just as she held him when doubts plagued his mind and made sleep impossible.

"Ruby!" Jaune called, and she looked up to see that she had wandered back to their small cottage.

He was sitting in the doorway, a sickle in one hand and a whetstone in the other as he greeted her with a smile and a wave. Ruby waved back with enthusiasm, a massive grin filling her face. They had built a home together, and for all the imperfections of being poor, as long as she could have Jaune, she wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

**A/N:**

To the guest from ch5, I hope you enjoyed your RoseArc :3 To Thatrandomdude, I'll see what I can do with crosshares/combat totes. As always guys, this story is 99% fan-driven. So, if you have an idea you want me to put down, by all means share via PM or review. Have a great week:)


	8. Thanksgiving (2014) Special!

**Thanksgiving (2014) Special!  
Submitted by: Coolheadluke**

_[Beacon Kitchens]_

The situation that Glynda Goodwitch found herself in at the moment was, to put it simply, only a few steps short of total humiliation. It was bad enough that she had been discovered wearing a frilly apron and covered in all-purpose flour, her nose buried in a cookbook as she tried to puzzle out how to make a proper pie crust. It was worse that it had been nearly five in the morning, and that she had been discovered by perhaps the most inept freshman to ever stumble into Beacon, Jaune Arc. She had been expecting ridicule, or at the very least howls of laughter.

Instead, she had gotten mild confusion, a brief 'hello', and a very polite yet shockingly detailed list as to what she was doing wrong with her baking. Before she had had proper time to register this fact, Jaune had already pulled on an apron of his own and taken a place beside her, mentioning that since Ozpin had wanted him to make pies for all of Beacon anyway, it would be non trouble to help her out as well. Which, after about an hour of confusion, finally led to the situation they were in now.

"It's really quite simple, Professor" Jaune said, demonstrating the proper method to making sugary apple slices for pie for the fourth time in fifteen minutes.

"Hardly..." Glynda muttered, her hand shaking slightly as she strove to keep her fingers from being cut on the edge of the paring knife she was using. It had been a long time since she had been on the other side of the proverbial teacher's desk, and she had almost forgotten the rigors that came with learning.

"Hey, lighten up!" Jaune laughed, his own hands going on autopilot as they quickly yet carefully rolled out multiple pie crusts, laying them on or by their respective tins. "It's the thought that counts, right?"

"That maxim applies only to gifts..." Glynda corrected, frowning in concentration as she finished peeling an apple and began to make slices.

"Believe me, Professor" Jaune asserted, now peeling and slicing apples at a tremendous rate. "It applies to cooking as well. In fact, it's the secret to making truly amazing food!"

"It is?" Glynda asked, finishing her first apple and beginning to work on her second.

"It is!" Jaune agreed, mixing his massive pile with batches of syrupy filling and pouring the resulting deliciousness into the waiting pie crusts. "Just think of the special someone that you'd absolutely love to taste your cooking, and everything just falls into place like magic."

"Special someone..." Glynda muttered, her cheeks reddening as that special someone's face invaded her mind. "Gah!" she hurriedly sucked on her finger, glaring daggers at the knife that she had just stabbed herself with.

"Here's a band-aid" Jaune called, casually tossing one over while crimping the top crusts of the pies in place.

"You know, Mr Arc" Glynda commented, putting on the band-aid before rounding on her student. "If you put as much effort into your classes as you do into cooking, you'd be at the top of the class."

"Then I would've had to have started training at the age of three" Jaune laughed, checking the pies to make sure he hadn't made any mistakes.

"Three?" Glynda asked, surprised.

"Three" Jaune repeated, bending over one of the many ovens in the kitchen as he crammed it with pies. "I did grow up with seven sisters, a doting mother, and a misogynistic father, after all. He constantly made my mother and siblings practice 'domestic activities.' I kinda picked up on how to run a house without even trying."

"I-I see..." Glynda replied, finishing her apples and beginning to fill the one pie tin that Jaune had left empty for her.

"Yeah..." Jaune murmured wistfully, closing the oven and stretching his back. "But hey, having those skills means I'll have no problems living on my own, right?"

He tossed a grin over his shoulder before opening a second oven and filling it with pies as well. Once he finished filling all but one oven, he returned to check on his professor's progress. She had managed to mix the apples with the syrup and pour the mixture into the waiting pie tin. She had carefully aligned the top crust over the tin, and was currently crimping the crusts together with a frown on her face and her tongue curled out of the corner of her mouth. Jaune smiled and took the completed pie from her, carving a rendition of Glynda's wand into the top with a few quick strokes of a knife. He slid it into the final waiting oven along with the rest of the pies and set the timer.

"Well, that's done!" Jaune proclaimed, flowing through a few quick stretches before eyeing the messy state of the kitchen. "Time to clean up, I guess..."

* * *

_[City of Vale]_

"Hmm~" Yang mused, walking aisles of her favorite party supply store. "What to buy... What to buy..."

She gazed at the endless arrays of napkins, paper plates, streamers, and decorations, trying to decide what was best for sprucing up the dorm. She knew that Ozpin had a massive feast and festival planned for the entire school, but she still wanted to add her own flair to the occasion, especially since the entire student body had been given a week-long vacation to spend as they see fit. She picked up a few different paper turkeys before setting them down in disappointment. She sighed, it really wasn't the kind of holiday that she could spruce up with the usual party supplies. She'd just have to find a way to make the rest of the vacation fun without touching Ozpin's Fall Festival. She left the store without buying anything (a first), and set off to find her partner.

"You could have just picked up Ozpin's order and left, you know" Blake commented, appearing from seemingly nowhere and hovering over Yang's shoulder.

"GAH!" Yang exclaimed, stumbling and clutching her chest in surprise. "Blake! Hello!"

"You're about to say that I need a bell" Blake commented dryly, turning a page of the novel she had buried her nose in.

"You seriously need a...hey, how'd you...?" Yang trailed off, surprised.

"You say the same thing every time I appear over your shoulder without warning" Blake explained, marking her page and putting the novel away. "And I got the order for you, so don't worry." She held up a medium-sized plastic bag filled with smaller, unmarked bags.

"What do you think old Ozzy wanted us to get, anyway?" Yang asked, setting off again at a casual walk.

"I don't know" Blake replied. "And I'm not willing to risk his ire over idle curiosity."

"Good decision" Yang commented, surprising Blake with her sudden spike in common sense. "You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat!"

"I think my ears just bled..." Blake groaned, Yang's puns and situational humor were getting worse by the day.

"It can't have been that bad..." Yang grinned.

"Yes, Yang" Blake replied, deadpan. "Yes it...oh hell no." She broke off in the middle of her complaint to voice her opinion on Yang's choice of store. "We almost got caught once, Yang. I'm not risking my academic neck again."

"It'll be fun~" Yang wheedled, throwing her arm around Blake's shoulders. "And it's not like it's illegal, Vale does have a legal age of 18."

"And Beacon prohibits all students from drinking and substance use while on campus" Blake retorted. "Besides, we don't need alcohol to have a good time at Beacon's Fall Festival."

"What about after the festival?" Yang asked. "We'll need something to spice up the after-party."

"You know what? Fine." Blake acquiesced. "But on one condition. Whatever we buy we have to give to Jaune to cook with."

"Jaune can cook?" Yang asked, surprised.

"He can" Blake replied. "Ozpin put him in charge of making sure there were enough pies to go around."

"Huh" Yang mused, unaware that Blake was steering her away from the liquor store. "I hope his cooking is up to snuff, we will be eating it whether we like it or not for the rest of the week."

"It is" Blake assured her, vividly remembering the delicious salmon fillet Jaune had made her as a bribe when she discovered his talent on a late-night tuna run. It had been succulent and moist with all the fat delicately scraped away and covered in a light maple glaze...

"You're drooling" Yang commented, passing her hand several times in front of Blake's unfocussed eyes. Blake snapped back to reality, hurriedly wiping away the drool and refocussing on Yang with a slight blush.

"You spaced out about food?" Yang asked, grinning mischievously. Blake internally groaned, it was going to be a long walk back to Beacon.

* * *

_[Team RWBY Dorm]_

"Would someone please enlighten me as to what is going on?" Weiss demanded, choosing to use a collective pronoun despite the fact that Ruby was the only other person in the team RWBY dorm. The source of her confusion was the fact that the dorm had been decked out in autumn hues of orange, red, and brown, along with the usual posters being replaced by cutout turkeys with monocles. Rose petals were littered everywhere, though this was less of an intentional decoration and more of a side effect of Ruby's semblance.

"It's the Fall Festival, Weiss!" Ruby chirped, pausing her rapid dashing to land on the heiress' bed.

"You're decorating the dorm" Weiss began, her tone deadly calm. "To celebrate a glorified one week break that the Headmaster inexplicably decided to give us?"

"It's not inexbli...enexplic...inexpica..." Ruby tripped over the word, trying to speak as quickly as Weiss had.

"In-ex-plic-a-ble" Weiss sounded it out for her, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, that!" Ruby agreed cheerily. "The Fall Festival is an annual holiday in the kingdom of Vale. It celebrates a time of peace and thanksgiving when the Grimm were first driven back and the kingdom founded."

"Alright" Weiss stated, seeing the plausibility in having a holiday to celebrate the founding of a nation. "Why turkey decorations?"

"No clue" Ruby replied honestly. "But it probably has something to do with the massive feast that comes with the festival."

"That seems reasonable" Weiss mused, beginning to get out of bed. "Is the shower free?"

"Yep!" Ruby said, returning to her mad dashing as she set up more decorations.

Once Weiss was properly freshened up for the day, a process that easily took an hour, the two teammates casually strolled down to catch the end of breakfast in the dining hall. Once they arrived, Weiss' eyeball developed a significant twitch, and Ruby's shoulders slumped. The dining hall was closed all day to prepare for the evening's feast, leaving the students to find their own food.

"Why would they do this to us?" Ruby moaned, already missing strawberries and cookies the dining hall offered at all meals.

"Oh, stop being such a child" Weiss retorted, grabbing her leader's hood and dragging her towards the airship docks. "I know multiple healthy restaurants in Vale. We'll just spend the day in the city and return for the dinnertime feast." Ruby nodded, choosing to remain limp as Weiss dragged her along. She'd never admit it to anyone, but she rather liked it when Weiss got all huffy over the team's health. It was almost as if Weiss was an inexperienced mother hen, trying her best to keep the rest of them in line while not falling into the same pitfalls she so studiously pointed out to the others.

Fortunately they caught the next airship just as it was about to depart, missing a half-hour wait for the next ship. They settled into their seats as the powerful engines rumbled to life, beginning the ten-minute trip down into the city. Weiss stared impassively out of the window, content to watch the clouds go by as the city's airship docks slowly grew larger. Ruby fidgeted a little, trying to come up with a suitable topic for conversation. Their awkward silence lasted throughout the airship ride, throughout the short walk to a cafe of Weiss' choosing, was briefly broken by their polite waiter and their orders, and was finally shattered by a simple question from Ruby.

"So Weiss, what're you thankful for?"

"Wh-What?" Weiss spluttered, surprised in the middle of taking a sip of tea.

"What're you thankful for?" Ruby repeated. "The Fall Festival is a time of thanksgiving, after all."

"Um..." Weiss muttered, casting about for a suitable reply, one that wasn't too ostentatious or too humble or too provocative.

"Having trouble thinking of something?" Ruby asked, her trademark grin reappearing.

"Shut up, dunce" Weiss' reply was almost automatic, robbed of it's sting through overuse and lessened determination.

"Well, if it makes it any easier" Ruby began, pausing briefly as the waiter brought her a strawberry crepe and some oatmeal sprinkled liberally with sugar. "I'm thankful above all for my family." Weiss raised an eyebrow in indication that Ruby should continue.

"I mean, after mom died and dad retreated into himself, Yang practically raised me" Ruby went on. "Qrow was there, of course, he took every opportunity he could get to come home and care for us. We bonded in our mutual grief, and though we might not have had everything we wanted, we had each other. And that was more than enough." Ruby had a melancholy smile on her face, her hands folded in her lap.

"I..." Weiss didn't know what to say. Ruby had just nonchalantly mentioned that the primary emotions binding her family together were love reinforced by grief. Following that, Weiss couldn't just say something trivial and shift the topic of conversation. No, she would have to think of something truly meaningful in her life, she owed it to Ruby.

"It's alright" Ruby replied, her soulful grey gaze tugging at Weiss' heart. "It's all in the past, there's really nothing to be said."

"I'm thankful for you" Weiss decided, the lack of Ruby's usual energy granting her a sudden epiphany. "You're the backbone of Team RWBY, keeping us all together with that childish optimism and enthusiasm of yours."

"That's..." Ruby's eyes had gone as large as saucers, both from Weiss' admission and from the warm tone she was using.

"A long way from hating your guts, I know" Weiss finished for the startled Ruby. "Truth be told, Team RWBY has become the family that I never had, a group of people that won't judge me for just wanting to be me. Me trying to be nicer, more collaborative and less elite...I guess I was just trying to say thank you without really knowing it." She glanced down at her teacup. "So thank you, Ruby, for everything you've done..."

"You're welcome" Ruby smiled across the table at her, putting both her hands on top of Weiss' free one. The two shared a friendly smile before finishing their breakfast, knowing their bond as teammates and partners to be stronger than ever before.

* * *

_[Team JNPR Dorm]_

"Good morning! Good Morning! Good Morning!~" Nora sang, rousing two of her teammates from slumber.

"..." Ren cracked an eye open, registered Nora's energetic cerulean eyes about two inches from his own violet ones, grunted in acceptance, and rolled over to catch a few more precious moments of warmth underneath his covers.

"Good morning" Pyrrha yawned, stretching as she got up, ignoring Nora's bouncing on Ren's bed. "Where's Jaune?"

"He left a message about doing a favor for Ozpin" Nora replied, now rubbing Ren's back affectionately as she slowly worked her hands up to the covers pulled tightly about his shoulders. "Something about the Fall Festival, apparently." She pulled off Ren's covers in one go, inciting a resigned moan as Ren slowly rolled over and flopped onto the floor, wiping sleep out of his eyes.

"Good morning, Nora..." he muttered, slowly getting up and fumbling towards the closet for his school uniform. Pyrrha had gotten fully dressed in hers by this point, and was reviewing the message left by Jaune.

"I'm going to go check on him" she announced, a little worried by the fact that he said that he could be gone for most of the day.

"Alright~" Nora replied, waving as Pyrrha left the room.

She turned around to face a half-dressed Ren just beginning to unfold his dress shirt. She gently threw her arms around his neck from behind and nuzzled her chin into his shoulder, almost believing that she could feel the old scars rippling across his back as he readjusted his posture to accommodate her. He clasped one hand over hers while reaching up with the other to stroke her cheek, a comfortable silence settling over the dorm. The Fall Festival had held a special meaning for the two of them, as it marked the day when a young Nora had found a starving and beaten Ren trying to sleep in an alleyway. It marked the day that Ren had seen his first genuine smile, framed by a head of vibrant ginger hair and enthusiastic cerulean eyes.

Nora had invited him to join her family as they wandered Haven's citywide festivities, and the rest rapidly became history. Her parents, just as effusive (some would say insane) as their daughter, welcomed him with open arms. The Valkyries became the family he had never known, raising the stoic boy with all the warmth and affection they could. Sure, Ren and Nora's closeness as foster siblings and their different surnames lead to the 'together, but not together-together' situation that they so often had to explain, but they wouldn't trade it for the world. Ren had found a home, and Nora had found a constant companion that would merely smile at her antics when others would be horrified or disgusted.

For them the Fall Festival marked the beginning of their beautiful friendship, a bond that no one else that they met could fully understand. Each had the other, and for them, it was enough.

* * *

_[Beacon Dining Hall]_

The students of Beacon, even the upperclassmen who knew of Ozpin's enthusiasm for the Fall Festival, were rendered speechless by the appearance of the dining hall that evening. The long tables had been covered by white tablecloths, had been set with fine porcelain plates and intricately worked silverware. The tables were heaped with every conceivable dish from Vale's history, enough to feed all of Beacon even if every student and teacher went back for thirds. The curtains had been drawn and the lights dimmed to provide a cozy and relaxed atmosphere appreciated by all. As the students all took their seats, Headmaster Ozpin stood on a temporary podium at the head of the hall and tapped his cane against the ground once. All conversation instantly ceased as the sharp crack floated through the room, and all eyes lifted to the Headmaster.

"Welcome" Ozpin began, his omnipresent coffee mug resting lightly on the podium. "I won't bore you with a long-winded speech on history, otherwise I'd have Professor Port on this podium instead of me." He waited with a smirk while a ripple of laughter passed through the crowd.

"I will, however, leave you to this feast with a few words" he continued once the crowd had quieted down. "I truly believe that each and every one of you has embodied at least one of the traits that enabled Vale to celebrate the very first Fall Festival. Loyalty. Comradeship. Leadership. Acceptance. A willingness to serve." He raised his coffee mug in a toast, his eyes shining with pride as he looked out at his students.

"May the light you cast on the world never fade!" he proclaimed, and the crowd of students echoed his toast, raising their own glasses and draining them in one go.

Ozpin looked on with a smile as the students began to eat, the podium disassembling itself thanks to Glynda's dust magic. He always enjoyed this particular time of year, a time when the bonds between people were fortified and celebrated. His keen eyes easily picked out a smiling Weiss Schnee reminding Ruby that dessert came after the meal, a somewhat embarrassed Jaune Arc explaining to his team where he had been all day, a boisterous Yang Xiao Long messing with a stoic Blake Belladonna (who did seem to be enjoying her partner's antics), a beautiful couple-in-denial as Nora Valkyrie practically sat in Lie Ren's lap, and an appreciative Team CFVY thanking Velvet for whipping up chocolate confections for all of them.

_I really must remember to thank Jaune for baking all those desserts... _Ozpin thought to himself as he idly took another sip of coffee. _Which reminds me..._

Ozpin glanced at his overworked colleague, Professor Glynda Goodwitch, as she finished putting the podium away and began fidgeting over something that was on her mind. Ozpin knew about the pie she had baked for him, just as he knew everything else that happened in Beacon. He smiled at the thought of the inevitable mess that would have been created as soon as she entered a kitchen, and the colossal amount of patience that it would take to help her to not burn a salad. That she had put so much effort into that one pie was the reason that he had had Ms. Belladonna pick up a last-minute order for him. If she wanted to be the first to express her feelings, then he would give her the perfect setting to do it in.

_Someday..._ Ozpin thought to himself as he invited Glynda up to his office, gently feeling the felt-lined case in his pocket. _Someday..._

* * *

**A/N:**  
Hey guys! I know that this is slightly late for thanksgiving, but it's never too late (or too early, for that matter) to celebrate the bonds between family and friends! Crosshares/Combat Totes will be coming up as a short oneshot before the weekend is out, and Malcho1324's request will come within a week. As always, this chain of oneshots is 99% community driven, if you have a story you want to see, PM me or post it in the reviews section, I swear that both it and my inbox are judgement-free zones. Have a great week guys:)


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